State supreme courts issued 110 opinions between May 8-14. The North Dakota Supreme Court led the field with 12 opinions issued, closely followed by Pennsylvania with 11 and Arkansas with eight.
Last week’s 110 opinions account for 4% of the year-to-date total of 2,474. The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia still sits at the top of the yearly leader board with 178 opinions issued this year, followed by Pennsylvania with 170 and Delaware with 151.
Supreme courts in 18 states have issued fewer than 25 opinions since the start of the year.
Some of the state supreme court opinions issued this year include those in:
- Wisconsin, where the court affirmed that an arbitrator did not exceed his powers when disciplining a Green Bay Police Department detective;
- Texas, where the court “held that Texas courts have specific jurisdiction over German automobile manufacturers based on their intentional post-sale tampering with affected vehicles that were owned, operated, and serviced in Texas;” and,
- Iowa, where the court dismissed the Iowa Department of Human Services’ (DHS) appeal against a district court’s ruling that Iowa’s Medicaid program must pay for sex reassignment surgery.
Supreme courts in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Texas, and Delaware regularly end the year as some of the country’s most active courts. Collectively, they accounted for 26% of all opinions issued in 2021 and 2022, and, to date, 28% in 2023.
Every state and the District of Columbia have at least one supreme court, known as a court of last resort. Oklahoma and Texas have two courts of last resort, one for civil cases and one for criminal proceedings. Supreme courts do not hear trials of cases. Instead, they hear appeals of decisions made in lower courts. The number of justices on each state supreme court ranges between five and nine.
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