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 May 2025.
Featured Cases
Access Independent Health Services v. Wrigley
North Dakota Supreme Court upheld state's abortion ban despite three of five justices concluding a health-risk exception was unconstitutionally vague, because the state constitution requires four justices to declare legislation unconstitutional
Clarke v. Town of Newburgh
New York Court of Appeals held local government could not assert state or federal equal protection challenge to the vote dilution provision of the state's Voting Rights Act
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
Layla H v. Virginia
Plaintiffs claim that state’s practice of approving permits for fossil-fuel infrastructure violates substantive due process and public trust rights to natural resources, protected by the state constitution. They claim such practice infringes these rights by contributing to greenhouse-gas pollution and climate change. A trial court dismissed plaintiffs’ complaint, and the intermediate appellate court affirmed on the basis that the plaintiffs lack standing. Finding that there was no reversible error, the Virginia Supreme Court declined to grant review of the appellate court decision.
Zyst v. Miller
Oregon trial court held that the state prison's failure to provide medically necessary gender-affirming care and treatment to a transgender inmate, and to provide adequate conditions when the inmate was in a period of segregation, violated cruel and unusual punishment and "unnecessary rigor" clauses.
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.
Arizona Right to Life v. Fontes
Held that the ballot description for an abortion-rights amendment initiative was sufficiently accurate and was not required to explain the initiative's potential impact on existing abortion laws.
SisterSong v. Georgia
Plaintiffs claim that abortion ban violates the state constitution’s right to liberty and privacy and guarantee of equal protection
State ex rel. Citizens Not Politicians v. Ohio Ballot Board
Largely upheld ballot language drafted by ballot board for a 2024 initiative that would have created an independent redistricting commission, concluding that characterization of the commission as "required to gerrymander" district boundaries was not unconstitutionally misleading.
Ohio v. Isaiah Morris
Court will review court of appeals's decision finding that the state constitutional right to counsel is more protective than the 6th Amendment and requires a defendant, who has been formally charged and secured an attorney, to consult with counsel before any waiver of his right to have an attorney present during a police interrogation can be valid.
State ex rel. Brooks v. Evnen
The Nebraska Supreme Court unanimously ruled that a proposed abortion-rights amendment could go before voters, rejecting claims that it violated the subject-subject rule and was so vague that it would mislead voters
Coleman v. Ashcroft
The Missouri Supreme Court rejected claims that Amendment 3, a ballot measure that would protect abortion access until viability, violated the single-subject rule and state election law by failing to list all the existing laws that its passage would repeal. The ruling ensured that Amendment 3 would remain on the ballot.
Commonwealth v. Thompson
Dissent would have held that inventory searches are unconstitutional under art. 1 sec. 8 of the Pennsylvania constitution, and therefore reversed the defendant's judgment on appeal
