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 February 2025.
Featured Cases
LeMieux v. Evers
The Wisconsin Supreme Court held, in a divided decision, that the governor did not exceed his partial veto authority under the state constitution when he altered digits, words, and punctuation in a budget bill to extend a school funding increase from 2 to 402 years.
Griffin v. State Board of Elections
A candidate for a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court, who lost by over 700 votes, claims that the state board of elections followed an incorrect process for registering voters and seeks in invalidate more than 60,000 votes.
People v. Taylor; People v. Czarnecki
Michigan Supreme Court held that mandatory life-without-parole sentences violate the state constitution’s protection against “cruel or unusual” punishment for anyone under age 21 at the time of the offense. The decision extends the court’s 2022 ruling in People v. Parks that such sentences are unconstitutional for those 18 or under.
State ex rel. Kotek v. Fagan
Ruled that it is an exercise of the court's mandamus authority to revise deadlines for state officials' constitutional redistricting duties when pandemic delayed federal census data
State v. Snyder
Ruled that domestic violence emergency protective orders are not de facto search warrants and do not meet the probable cause standards under the search and seizure clause
State v. Sutterfield
Ruled that arrest by police officer for completed misdemeanor that occurred outside the officer's presence did not violate search and seizure clause where officer was assisting a private individual conducting a citizen arrest
State v. Heath
Ruled that religious liberty clause in section of constitution containing housekeeping provisions for the transition from territory to statehood was not intended to broaden the guarantee in the declaration of rights
Hamen v. Hamlin County
Ruled that damage caused by law enforcement during an arrest is not a taking under the state constitution
Metcalfe v. State
Ruled repeal of statutory right of reinstatement unconstitutionally impaired or diminished an accrued benefit of the state employee retirement system
Dulin v. State
Dissent would have held that when the total court costs imposed on a defendant do not plainly exceed the cost to the state of litigating the case, there is no violation of separation of powers
State v. Lopez-Carrera
Dissent wrote that State's sovereign power and victims' rights require that statute limiting pretrial detention permit detention of a defendant noncitizen when removal is certain and imminent
Z.W.E. v. L.B. (Ex parte Z.W.E.)
Concurrence would have ruled that parentage statute’s definition of “child” should be interpreted to include unborn children as constitution specifically protects their rights
In re Humphrey
Ruled equal protection and substantive due process require court to consider financial ability to post bail and whether less restrictive alternatives to detention could satisfy government’s interests