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 March 2025.
Featured Cases
Black Voters Matter v. Byrd
Florida Supreme Court upheld the state's 2022 congressional map against voting rights groups' challenge that it diminishes Black voters' ability to elect candidates of their choice in violation of a 2010 amendment, finding the plaintiffs had not proven the possibility of drawing a remedial map that complies with the federal equal protection clause.
Evers v. Marklein
Wisconsin Supreme Court held that statutes permitting a legislative committee to pause, object to, or suspend administrative rules for varying periods of time both before and after promulgation — used by the committee in this case effectively to block for three years a rule banning “conversion therapy” for LGBTQ+ patients — facially violate the state constitution’s bicameralism and presentment requirements.
Kaul v. Urmanski
Wisconsin Supreme Court held that an 1849 law, which a local prosecutor had claimed was a near-total abortion ban, is impliedly repealed as to abortion by subsequent legislation and does not ban the procedure in the state.
State v. Dodge
Held that the defendant adequately preserved, for purposes of appellate review, his argument that his second trial violated his rights against double jeopardy
LeMieux v. Evers
The Wisconsin Supreme Court held, in a divided decision, that the governor did not exceed his partial veto authority under the state constitution when he altered digits, words, and punctuation in a budget bill to extend a school funding increase from 2 to 402 years.
Attorney General v. Hood
Held that the state’s civil rights charges against the Nationalist Social Club-131, a white nationalist and neo-Nazi organization operating in the New England area, in connection with a July 2022 incident where members displayed banners reading “KEEP NEW ENGLAND WHITE” from a highway overpass without a permit, impermissibly chilled the defendant’s constitutional right of free speech and premised on an overbroad reading of the statute
Hicks v. State
Will consider whether Wyoming's "cruel or unusual" punishment clause provides greater protections against mandatory life-without-parole sentences for late adolescents (those who were under 21 at the time of the crime) than the federal Eighth Amendment does. Will also consider whether such sentences violate state constitutional clauses providing the "penal code shall be framed on the humane principles of reformation and prevention" and for equal protection.
Montana Environmental Information Center & Sierra Club v. Montana Department of Environmental Quality
Held that the Department of Environmental Quality appropriately considered noise impacts of a proposed project as required under the Montana Environmental Policy Act, but did not analyze lighting impacts and greenhouse gas emissions as required under the then-applicable language of the Act
Montana Trout Unlimited v. Montana Department of Natural Resources & Conservation
Held that the exemption of dewatering from the Montana Water Use Act's permitting requirements did not violate the water rights section of the state's constitution
Gotay v. Creen
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court held that a “special relationship” exists between foster children and the state that imposes an affirmative duty on the state to ensure a reasonably safe foster home environment, but found the state defendants were entitled to qualified immunity on the parent and guardian's substantive due process claim.
State v. Nelson
Held that community custody conditions requiring the criminal defendant submit to breath analysis and urinalysis testing to monitor compliance with conditions prohibiting use of alcohol and unprescribed drugs were supported by authority of law, and thus were constitutional under art. 1 sec. 7 of the Washington Constitution, regardless of whether they were related to his specific crimes
Dupuis v. Roman Catholic Bishop of Portland
Held that a law that revived claims based on sex acts toward minors that were previously time-barred impairs a defendant's vested right to be free from a claim once its statute of limitations has expired, finding that a prohibition on laws reviving expired claims "runs as a theme" throughout the text of Maine's Constitution.
State v. Francisco Edgar Tirado
Held that North Carolina's "cruel or unusual" punishment clause — construed consistently with a separate state constitutional provision specifying the types of punishment laws may impose, without limitations based on age — would provide less protection against life-without-parole sentences for juveniles than the Eighth Amendment, so must be interpreted in lockstep with the federal "cruel and unusual" punishment clause.
