State of Justice: January 2026 Cases in the Courts
Criminal Justice
Colorado
In re People v. Camp and In re People v. Simons
The Colorado Supreme Court ruled that municipalities may not impose sentences pursuant to their own criminal codes that are harsher than sentences imposed by the state for identical offenses. The ruling resulted from the cases of two women who were convicted in municipal court and sentenced to incarceration and fines more than three times as high as those they would have received had they been tried in state court.
Education
Kentucky
Coleman v. Jefferson County Board of Education
The Kentucky Supreme Court reversed an opinion it issued last year, which had overturned decades of precedent interpreting two provisions of the state’s constitution to prohibit the legislature from enacting laws or regulations governing the management of schools or the operations of any municipality, county, district, or region. The court’s earlier decision had allowed the legislature to enact a law that stripped numerous powers from the Jefferson County Board of Education and transferred them to the superintendent. The court’s new opinion overturned its previous opinion and restored the decades-old precedent holding that such legislative intrusion into county and school board operations is unconstitutional.
Environmental Protections
Illinois
Concerned Citizens & Property Owners et al. v. The Illinois Commerce Commission et al.
The Illinois Supreme Court unanimously blocked a challenge to the Illinois Commerce Commission’s decision to grant a permit for a planned high-voltage transmission line that would carry wind-generated power from Kansas across Missouri and Illinois to connect to two regional power grids in Indiana. The plaintiffs, the state’s agriculture business cooperative and several private property owners, alleged the Commission erred in granting the permit to the project because the project’s backers could not prove it could sufficiently meet funding requirements after the Trump administration canceled a $4.9 billion federal loan promised by the Biden administration. The court ruled the Commission correctly assessed that the project’s backers had sufficient funding under the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, a law enacted by the Illinois legislature in 2021 to support the state’s investment in renewable energy sources and green jobs.
Executive Authority and Civil Liberties
Montana
Noland v. State
The Montana Supreme Court reinstated a business owner’s challenge to a state agency’s decision to deny his business a license to operate, ordering the lower court to reconsider the agency’s decision in light of the constitutional issues raised by the plaintiff. The issue arose when the plaintiff sued the Montana Public Service Commission after it ordered the plaintiff to stop operating his waste disposal business because he had not complied with the Commission’s requirements that new businesses show that a public need exists for their services and that their operations would not hinder the ability of existing businesses to remain competitive. The plaintiff alleged the requirements violated the Equal Protection clause of the Montana Constitution and the U.S. Constitution, as well as the “right of pursuing life’s basic necessities” enshrined in the state constitution.
Firearm Restrictions
Connecticut
State v. Enrrique H.
The Connecticut Supreme Court rejected a defendant’s challenge to a state law that allows courts to issue protective orders prohibiting criminal defendants from possessing firearms even for nonviolent crimes, holding that crimes that involve threatened or attempted use of physical force or violence can satisfy the criteria for a protective order. In its unanimous opinion, the court rejected the defendant’s arguments that asserted the law was unconstitutionally vague and violated the Second Amendment.
Reproductive Rights
Wyoming
State v. Johnson
The Wyoming Supreme Court struck down the state’s two abortion bans, ruling they violated a 2012 amendment to the state constitution that protects individuals’ right to make their own healthcare decisions. The court rejected the state’s arguments that the laws further the state’s compelling interest in protecting unborn life and ruled that women have a fundamental right to make their own healthcare decisions, including the decision to have an abortion. The governor and attorney general have indicated the state will petition the court to rehear the case.
Voting Rights
Arkansas
State of Arkansas, et al., v. Good Day Farm Arkansas, LLC, et al.
The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled that the state’s constitution empowers the legislature to amend or overturn citizen-initiated constitutional amendments with a two-thirds vote of each chamber. The ruling came after two medical cannabis provisioning businesses sued the state, arguing the legislature’s changes to the state’s citizen-initiated constitutional amendment that legalized cannabis use for medical purposes in 2016 were unconstitutional, and overturned the court’s own 75-year-old precedent that had held the constitution only vested the legislature with the power to amend legislatively initiated amendments.
Missouri
Nicholson v. State
The Missouri Supreme Court unanimously overturned a state law enacted in 2025 that restricted judges from rewriting misleading language written by state officials to describe ballot questions to voters and empowered the state’s attorney general to appeal temporary court decisions affecting such descriptions. State lawmakers enacted the law to nullify an amendment enshrining reproductive freedom that was added to the state constitution by a citizen-initiated amendment in 2024. The court ruled that the law violated the state constitution by allowing lawmakers to change the amendment’s original intent.
Montana
T.E.I. v. Attorney General
The Montana Supreme Court upheld a ruling from the state’s attorney general that determined a proposed ballot initiative that sought to prohibit corporate spending in elections was unconstitutional because the proposed amendment would change two sections of the constitution. The proposal’s organizers have indicated they will refile their proposed amendment to affect only one section of the constitution.
Workers’ Rights
Minnesota
State of Minnesota Office of the Attorney General v. Madison Equities, Inc.
The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that the state’s attorney general could pursue charges of wage theft and overtime violations against a property management company despite initiating the charges after the state’s statute of limitations had passed. The court agreed with the attorney general’s assertion that the company had intentionally used delay tactics during the investigation process to delay the attorney general’s ability to file charges until after the statute of limitations had run, and upheld the attorney general’s assertion that the statute of limitations had tolled while the investigation was stalled by the company’s numerous legal challenges to the attorney general’s efforts to investigate the allegations.
Oregon
Crandall v. State of Oregon
The Oregon Supreme Court ruled that a provision in the state’s law governing tort claims that prevents public employees injured on the job from suing supervisors unconstitutionally deprives public workers of a benefit afforded by the law to workers in the private sector. The case arose when a firefighter contracted by the Oregon Department of Forestry was severely injured by the negligent orders of two of his supervisors. He claimed workers’ compensation and sued the two supervisors responsible for his injuries for more than $2.7 million in damages and lost wages. Two lower courts invoked the tort claims law to rule that the firefighter could not sue the supervisors, but the supreme court ruled that the law carved out an exception for public employees without providing a remedy, in violation of language in the state constitution that guarantees everyone the right to a remedy for injury. The court remanded the case back to the lower court for further proceedings.
