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 November 2024.
Featured Cases
City of Fargo v. State
Held that a 2023 statute barring localities from enacting ordinances related to the purchase, sale, or possession of firearms and ammunitions that are more restrictive than state law preempted the city of Fargo’s limits on such sales and did not violate state constitutional “home rule” clauses as applied to Fargo’s restrictions.
Evers v. Marklein
Court will decide whether a legislative committee’s vetoes of an agency rule that would ban the practice of “conversion therapy” for LGBTQ+ patients violates the separation of powers principles in the Wisconsin Constitution.
In an earlier installment of the case, the court ruled 6–1 that the law permitting the effective legislative veto of agency land-conservation expenditures 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.
Held v. Montana
Held that Montana’s policy of excluding greenhouse gas emissions and related climate impacts from environmental reviews of fossil fuel projects violated the state constitution’s guarantee of a clean and healthful environment.
Center for Coalfield Justice v. Washington County Board of Elections
Will consider the constitutionality of a policy instituted by the election board for Washington County before the 2024 primary elections that caused all mail-in ballots received to be entered into the statewide system as simply “returned,” meaning voters whose ballots were disqualified received no notification that their vote wouldn’t count, leaving them unable to contest the decision or know to cast a provisional ballot.
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.
Commonwealth v. Govan
Will consider whether law enforcement use of location data obtained from a GPS monitoring device required to be worn by a pretrial releasee to investigate a new unrelated crime violates that individual's right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures under the Massachusetts or federal constitution.
Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles v. Simmons
Reversed trial court injunction that had ordered Indiana's bureau of motor vehicles to allow a non-binary gender marker on drivers' licenses, finding that the agency's binary-only policy triggers rational-basis review under the federal equal protection clause and does not infringe federal substantive due process.
State v. Miller
Held that the Iowa Constitution’s cruel and unusual punishment clause does not prohibit sentencing juvenile offenders to a minimum prison term before they are eligible for parole and rejected the defendant’s argument that the same clause bars such a sentence unless there is expert testimony concerning defendants’ “youthful characteristics"
State of Washington v. Gator's Custom Guns
After a lower court found that Washington's weapons ban on magazines that hold more than ten rounds of ammunition violates the state and U.S. constitutions, the Washington Supreme Court issued a stay on enforcing the ruling while the state of Washington appeals the lower court decision.
State ex rel. Spung v. Evnen
Ordered election officials to implement immediately a 2024 law that reinstated voting rights to those convicted of a felony upon completion of their sentence, meaning affected people can now register to vote for November’s election. The secretary of state, based on an advisory opinion from the state attorney general calling the law unconstitutional, had directed election officials to stop registering people with a felony conviction who had not received a pardon.
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
T.F. and B.F. v. Kettle Moraine School District
Trial court held that district's policy of permitting and affirming student requests to transition to a different gender identity at school, without parental consent, violates parents' fundamental due process right to make healthcare decisions for their children. Court relied on expert testimony that living a "double life" with different gender identities at home and at school is "'inherently psychologically unhealthy'" for children.
Planned Parenthood of Montana v. State (Planned Parenthood 3)
Upheld preliminary injunction against 2023 laws and an agency rule that limit Medicaid coverage for abortion, finding that they likely violate the right to a pre-viability abortion the Montana Supreme Court has recognized as protected by the state constitution's right to privacy, as well as the state's equal protection clause.
