State Case Database
Search State Court Report's database of significant state supreme court decisions and pending cases. Download decisions and briefs for cases that develop state constitutional law. This is a selected database and does not include every state supreme court case. See methodology and "How to Use the State Case Database" for more information.
This database is updated monthly, although individual cases may be updated more frequently. Last updated comprehensively with cases decided through August 2024.
Featured Cases
Genser v. Butler County Board of Elections
Held citizens whose mail-in ballots were disqualified for a failure to return them in the required secrecy envelope have a right to cast a provisional ballot and have it count.
Cincinnati Enquirer v. Bloom
Found the blanket sealing of a juvenile’s delinquency records when the juvenile is found not delinquent — the juvenile equivalent of not guilty — unconstitutional because there was no determination that the harm to the juvenile outweighed the public’s right to access court records
Gonzalez v. Miller
Unanimously affirmed the denial of a district attorney’s effort to dismiss a state Open Records Act request relating to her office’s “failure . . . to effectively prosecute criminal cases, and an open disregard for the laws of the State of Georgia"
Planned Parenthood of Montana v. State (Planned Parenthood 3)
Upheld preliminary injunction against 2023 laws and an agency rule that limit Medicaid coverage for abortion, finding that they likely violate the right to a pre-viability abortion the Montana Supreme Court has recognized as protected by the state constitution's right to privacy, as well as the state's equal protection clause.
Planned Parenthood of Montana v. State (Planned Parenthood 4)
Upheld preliminary injunction against 2023 laws that prohibit dilation and evacuation abortions—the only outpatient procedure available in the second trimester in Montana—and require an ultrasound pre-abortion, effectively preventing telehealth mediation abortions. A majority of the court found that these laws likely violate the right to a pre-viability abortion the Montana Supreme Court has recognized as protected by the state constitution's right to privacy.
Huskey v. Oregon Department of Corrections
Will consider whether provisions of the Oregon Constitution that say inmates should work or engage in on-the-job training while in custody but have no “legally enforceable right” to a job, training, or to “compensation for work or labor,” preclude an inmate who does not get such assignments from seeking damages for lost wages.
McKay v. State
Reversed trial court ruling that a 2023 law that gives the attorney general control over the state’s defense of the imposition of the death penalty on collateral review violates the state constitutional provision governing the duties of district attorneys
R.W. v. Dept. of Education and T.G.A. v. Dept. of Education
Will consider whether a law that requires the state to publicize suspensions of teachers who are charged with serious crimes, requires removal of references to those suspensions -- or whether due process principles in the Pennsylvania Constitution do -- if those charges are subsequently resolved in the educators' favor.
Doe v. Minnesota
Left in place a lower court order blocking abortion restrictions relating to mandated physician care, hospitalization, criminalization, parental notification, and informed consent for violating the state constitution
Krasner v. Ward
Held that articles of impeachment brought by the Pennsylvania legislature against District Attorney of Philadelphia County Larry Krasner became null and void upon the expiration in November 2022 of that legislative session.
League of Women Voters of Utah v. Utah State Legislature
Voided Amendment D, a legislatively referred proposed state constitutional amendment that would have allowed lawmakers to repeal citizen-initiated and approved ballot measures. The amendment would have overturned a prior Utah high court ruling. The state supreme court found that legislature failed to follow the proper procedure for placing an amendment on the ballot.
Republican National Committee v. Aguilar
The Nevada Supreme Court will hear an appeal of a denial of a preliminary injunction that sought to stop the practice of counting as valid mail-in ballots that lack a postmark date but arrive by the statutory deadline. State law mandates that ballots for which the “date of the postmark cannot be determined” must arrive by 5:00 p.m. on the third day after the election.