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 August 2024.
Featured Cases
Genser v. Butler County Board of Elections
Held citizens whose mail-in ballots were disqualified for a failure to return them in the required secrecy envelope have a right to cast a provisional ballot and have it count.
Cincinnati Enquirer v. Bloom
Found the blanket sealing of a juvenile’s delinquency records when the juvenile is found not delinquent — the juvenile equivalent of not guilty — unconstitutional because there was no determination that the harm to the juvenile outweighed the public’s right to access court records
Gonzalez v. Miller
Unanimously affirmed the denial of a district attorney’s effort to dismiss a state Open Records Act request relating to her office’s “failure . . . to effectively prosecute criminal cases, and an open disregard for the laws of the State of Georgia"
Fire Protection Service v. Survitec Survival Products
Held that applying to a preexisting contract a statute prohibiting suppliers from terminating dealer agreements without good cause is not unconstitutionally retroactive
Palade v. Board of Trustees of the University of Arkansas System
Ruled tenured faculty claims that university’s revised policy violated contracts and free communication clauses lacked standing, ripeness, and justiciability
Meyer v. Knudsen
Ruled constitution’s restriction that legislation by initiative may not appropriate funds does not apply to constitutional amendments proposed by initiative
Ex parte Pinkard
Ruled constitution’s absolute state immunity clause does not bar claims that name and seek relief only from individual state employees in their personal capacity
Shea v. State
Held that the constitution grants the legislature broad authority to determine public education policy, prohibiting judicial review of the adequacy and allocation of education funding
State v. Wellknown
Concurrence would have held that state constitution provides greater protection against discriminatory peremptory challenges than the federal constitution
State v. Robinson
Ruled legislature treated fetus as a type of child in aggravator factor statute for capital cases resulting in constitutionally permissible basis to support aggravator finding
The Village of Newburgh Heights v. State
Held that a statute reducing a municipality's state funding by an amount equal to the fines collected from traffic camera citations did not violate home rule authority
Metropolitan Government of Nashville & Davidson County v. Tennessee Department of Education
Ruled that a program redirecting money from local public school systems directly to some students to pay for private school tuition did not violate home rule provision
Caruso v. Eighth Judicial District Court of Nevada
Dissent would have held that separation of powers prohibits a state legislator from also serving as a prosecutor, an executive branch function
