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
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.
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.
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.
Castellanos v. State of California et al.
Upheld a ballot measure approved by voters in 2022 that classifies app-based drivers as independent contractors. Plaintiffs claimed the measure infringed on the state legislature's constitutional authority to create a workers' compensation system.
League of Women Voters of Kansas v. Schwab
Held that voting was not a fundamental right under the state constitution's Bill of Rights, but a political right grounded elsewhere in the constitution.
Worrell v. Desantis
Denied an elected Florida state attorney’s bid to be reinstated after she was removed from office by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, an act she, a Democrat, said was politically motivated. The court said DeSantis was within his constitutionally-conferred rights to suspend her for what he alleged was neglect of her duties. A dissenting opinion in the case said the prosecutor was not given time to mount a meaningful defense and expressed need for careful examination of a suspension in the case where the constitution “in effect authorizes the governor to override the will of the majority of voters who elected the official and to appoint a replacement of the governor’s choosing.”
Tricoast Builders, Inc. v. Fonnegra
Ruled that the plaintiff was required to establish prejudice in order to prevail on appeal on their claim regarding the trial court's alleged error in declining to conduct a jury trial
Minnesota v. Malecha
Held that, under the state constitution, prosecutors could not rely on evidence collected after police officers arrested a person based on a warrant they didn’t know had been quashed.
Smith v. Iowa District Court for Polk County
Held that the Iowa Constitution contains a legislative privilege that protects legislators from compelled document production
Planned Parenthood of Michigan v. Attorney General of the State of Michigan
Trial court permanently enjoined enforcement of a 1931 Michigan law criminalizing all abortions except those performed to save the mother's life, holding that the law violates abortion patients' fundamental right to bodily integrity under the state due process clause, as well as state equal protection.
Commonwealth v. Shepherd
Held that the state's right to equal protection did not require the retroactive application of a new rule requiring proof of actual malice for felony murder
Six Brothers, Inc. v. Town of Brookline
Upheld local law that would gradually make it illegal to sell tobacco products within town limits; held regulation is not preempted by state tobacco regulations and does not violate equal protection
Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region v. Knodell
Concurrence would have held that the state constitution unambiguously exempts appropriation bills from the single subject requirement and was therefore inapplicable to the bill at issue, which professed to eliminate Medicaid funding for abortion providers and their affiliates
