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 June 2025.
Featured Cases
Johnson v. Wyoming
Wyoming Supreme Court struck down the state's abortion and medication abortion bans for violating a 2012 amendment that granted adults the right to make their own health care decisions
League of Women Voters of Utah v. Utah State Legislature (LWV 1)
Utah Supreme Court sent partisan gerrymandering case back to lower court to consider whether the legislature violated voters' fundamental right to "reform or alter" their government when it overturned redistricting reforms passed by initiative. Lower court found legislators violated that right and struck the current congressional map, adopting an alternative proposed by the plaintiffs
Jackson v. Florida
Florida Supreme Court upheld a 2023 law that permits eligible defendants to be sentenced to death on the recommendation of only 8 of 12 jurors
State v. McLain
Maine Supreme Court held that the state constitution's privilege against self-incrimination provides greater protection than the federal Fifth Amendment with respect to waiving that privilege.
In re the Detention of M.E. and R.S.
Washington Supreme Court will consider whethere a trial court exceeded its authority in ordering a local public defense department to assign counsel to numerous people facing involuntary civil commitments, despite those assignments exceeding the department's caseload limits.
People v. Bankston
California Supreme Court will consider whether the state constitution limits relief available under the state's racial justice act, including with respect to death penalty eligibility, if prosecutors are found to have appealed to racial bias in the guilt or penalty phase
Arnold v. Kotek
Oregon Supreme Court will consider whether a voter-approved ballot measure requiring a permit process to be eligible to purchase a gun and completion of a background check before any transfer, as well as banning large-capacity magazines, violates the state constitutional right to bear arms.
Lyon v. Riverside Methodist Hospital
Ohio Court of Appeals held that a law capping noneconomic damages for medical malpractice claims does not facially violate state constitutional due process or equal protection, but did violate those guarantees as applied to the plaintiff whose award was signficantly reduced for extreme injuries.
Mohebali v. Hayes
North Carolina Court of Appeals held that a law capping jury awards of noneconomic damages for medical malpractice did not violate the state constitutional jury trial right of a plaintiff who sued her physician for negligence for allowing her pregnancy to extend to 44-weeks, resulting in fetal death.
Hicks v. State
Wyoming Supreme Court held that mandatory life without parole sentences for young adults who are over 18 do not violate the state constitution’s criminal punishment or equal protection clauses.
Phillips v. State (Formerly Blackmon v. State)
Plaintiffs, including patients who allege they did not receive medically necessary abortion care due to doctors' confusion regarding the scope of the medical necessity exception in the state's abortion ban, challenge that exception as violating state constitutional rights to life and equal protection and as unconstitutionally vague.
Raftery v. State Board of Retirement
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court held that forfeiture of pension benefits required by state law when a state employee is convicted of violating laws applicable to his office did not violate the excessive fines or “cruel or unusual” punishment clause.
Ex Parte David Leonard Wood
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals remanded subsequent habeas petition for development of actual innocence claim. Concurrence would hold that state constitution's distinctive protections against erroneous deprivations of life support an independent standard for actual innocence habeas claims involving capital sentences.
