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 October 2025.
Featured Cases
Equal Ground Education Fund v. Byrd; Vaccari v. Byrd; Common Cause v. DeSantis
Florida Supreme Court denied petition seeking to halt use of the state's new congressional map while consolidated challenges to the map under the state's Fair Districts Amendment proceed. An appellate court is reviewing a trial court's denial of a temporary injunction
NAACP v. Tennessee
Tennessee lower court dismissed challenge to the state's mid-decade congressional redistricting, which claimed the legislature did not have authority to alter state laws to allow the redistrictring because those alterations were not specifically included in the governor's proclamation calling the session
McDougle v. Scott
Virginia Supreme Court, in a split decision, nullified a constitutional amendment approved by voters that would have allowed the state's congressional districts to be redrawn, finding the legislative process used for the amendment violated the state constitution
People v. Armstrong
Michigan Supreme Court held that, following the state's legalization of some marijuana use and possession, the smell of marijuana, standing alone, does not constitute probable cause to justify the warrantless search of a car.
Sikora v. Iowa
Iowa Supreme Court held that a former incarcerated person’s state constitutional and tort damages claims against the state and correction officers for releasing him from prison five months late were barred by the legislature’s choice not to waive sovereign immunity for false imprisonment claims. Three dissenting justices would have held that the right to sue an official for false imprisonment was part of the common law at the state constitution’s adoption and was secured by its liberty guarantees, precluding legislators from eliminating that right in the state tort claims act.
Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood Great Plains and Planned Parenthood Great Rivers v. State of Missouri
After the Missouri Supreme Court required a different preliminary injunction standard, trial court reissued a preliminary injunction against many abortion restrictions in the state and the intermediate court affirmed; the trial court then issued a permanent injunction
Grube v. Trader; State v. Rogan
Hawaii Supreme Court held that law requiring courts to "seal or otherwise remove all judiciary files" from any public electronic judicial database must be interpreted as providing two options to avoid state constitutional right to public access and separation of powers issues: removal of judicial records from the qualifying database, but keeping them publicly available for in-person review; or sealing of court records on a case-by-case basis, subject to procedural and substantive safeguards.
State v. City of San Antonio
Court of Appeals blocked a city from distributing payments under a $100,000 fund created to cover reproductive healthcare costs, which may include out-of-state travel for abortion care, while a full appeal is pending. Preliminarily held the fund violates the state constitution's gift clause because sending residents to undergo procedures out of state that Texas prohibits within the state does not count as a public purpose. Although the city had not yet disbursed any money and argued it still had the option to choose not to pay for out-of-state abortion travel, the panel found it sufficiently likely such payment would occur for the dispute to be ripe.
State v. Amble
Iowa Supreme Court revisited its 2021 decision in State v. Wright that the state's search and seizure clause requires police to obtain a warrant before searching garbage placed curbside for collection, finding that subsequent enactment of a state statute providing such garbage "shall be deemed abandoned property" means a warrant is no longer constitutionally required. The majority reasoned that Wright relied on "positive law" -- a local anti-scavening ordinance prohibiting anyone but licensed trash collectors from picking up trash -- to define private property rights, and the state statute changed that positive law by preempting the local ordinance. A dissent opined that the majority's position allows legislative "end-runs" of constitutional rights and disregards an overarching reasonable-expectation-of-privacy analysis.
Kansas v. Harper
Trial court found requirement that drivers' licenses display sex as assigned at birth did not violate equal protection by discriminating based on sex or transgender status, or a right to personal autonomy or informational privacy. Appellate court reversed on separate grounds and remanded to a new judge
League of Women Voters of South Carolina v. Alexander
South Carolina Supreme Court held that partisan gerrymandering claims are nonjusticiable political questions, which state courts cannot review, under the state constitution.
Josh Kaul v. Wisconsin State Legislature
Wisconsin Supreme Court held a law giving a legislative committee authority to approve or disprove civil settlements reached by the state justice department violates separation of powers as applied to civil enforcement actions and civil cases brought on behalf of executive agencies. Settling these types of actions is within the core power of the executive branch, as the legislature has failed to demonstrate that doing so implicates an institutional interest giving lawmakers a shared constitutional role.
State v. Spencer
Illinois Supreme Court held that an aggregate 100-year prison sentence for a defendant who was 20 when the crimes occurred is not a de facto life sentence because a state statute makes first-degree murder defendants under 21 eligible for parole after 20 years and mandates that the reviewing board consider mitigating circumstances related to the defendant’s youth. The court further held that the the fact the sentence is not de facto life does not foreclose the defendant from bringing an as-applied challenge to his sentence under the state constitution’s “proportionate penalties” clause in a post-conviction petition.
