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
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. Because the majority found the laws violate bicameralism and presentment, they did not address the parties' alternative separation of powers arguments.
In an earlier installment of the case, the court ruled that a law permitting a legislative budget committee to block a land conservation agency’s decisions about how to spend money already appropriated to the agency by the legislature violated the executive branch’s “core power” to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” While the Wisconsin Constitution gives the legislature authority to create an agency, define its parameters, and appropriate funds for it, the power to spend those funds in accordance with legislation lies solely with the executive, the court said.
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Supreme Court held that an 1849 law, which a local prosecutor had claimed was a near-total abortion ban, is impliedly repealed as to abortion by subsequent legislation and does not ban the procedure in the state.
Contoocook Valley School District v. New Hampshire
The New Hampshire Supreme Court affirmed the state's existing education funding law is constitutionally inadequate and $7,356.01 per pupil as a minimum constitutional guidepost for the legislature, but reversed the trial court's injunction directing the state immediately to pay that amount because the court failed to give adequate weight to separation of powers concerns.
State ex rel. Grooms v. Privette
Ruled court lacked constitutional power to punish court clerk for contempt for failing to perform statutorily-required duties that were unrelated to court’s judicial function
State v. Noli
Ruled police’s expansion of scope of traffic stop into an unrelated illegal drug investigation violated constitution’s protections against unreasonable search and seizure
Commonwealth v. Rader
Ruled police stop and frisk of defendant did not violate state constitutional search and seizure and equal protection provisions, but defendants may make equal protection claims in the context of pedestrian stops
Becker v. Dane Cnty.
Ruled that a local health officer's authority to issue public health orders does not run afoul of separation of powers
Weems v. State
Held that law barring Advanced Practice Registered Nurses from performing abortions unconstitutionally interfered with individuals' privacy right to seek medical care from a qualified provider of their choice
Holmes v. Moore
Ruled that implementing statute for constitutional amendment requiring photo identification for voting in person did not violate equal protection clause
Burnett v. Smith
Held that damages actions against the state for constitutional violations are not recognized by the court unless authorized by common law, state statute, or the constitution
Jameson v. Montgomery
Ruled that constitutional victims’ rights provision precluded suit against individuals entitled to prosecutorial immunity
State ex rel Rosenblum v. Living Essentials, LLC
Ruled that statute prohibiting false and misleading marketing did not unconstitutionally conflict with free speech clause, as it fell within the historical exception for fraud
Session v. State
Ruled that sex offender registration statute does not unconstitutionally regulate citizens' "social status"
