Supreme Court of Missouri - Notable Cases

Notable Cases

The following is a list of notable cases decided by the Supreme Court of Missouri or which came to the Supreme Court of the United States from the Supreme Court of Missouri. Since 1973, the Supreme Court of Missouri has heard all cases en banc (before all seven judges). Before that many cases were heard by panels of three judges. Cases heard en banc are cited as "Mo. banc"; older cases heard by a panel are cited as "Mo."

• Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health, 760 S.W.2d 408 (Mo. banc 1988), 497 U.S. 261 (1990)
  • Euthanasia, right to die; holding that it requires "clear and convincing evidence" to remove a person's life support; affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States.
• Doe v. Phillips, 194 S.W.3d 837 (Mo. banc 2006)
  • Sex offender registration; holding that applying Missouri's sex offender registration laws to anyone who had been convicted or pleaded guilty to a registrable offense before Missouri's sex offender registration law was passed in 1995 violates the Constitution of Missouri's unique bar on "laws retrospective in operation." Doe and its progeny constitute one of the few successful constitutional challenges to sex offender registration laws in the United States.
• Dred Scott v. Sandford, 15 Mo. 576 (1852), 60 U.S. (19 How.) 393 (1856)
  • Slavery; holding that slaves taken into free states remained slaves; affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States, creating a precursor to the American Civil War.
• Drope v. Missouri, 462 S.W.2d 677 (Mo. banc 1971), 420 U.S. 162 (1975)
  • Competency; holding that the fact that a criminal defendant attempted suicide before trial does not constitute reasonable doubt as to his competency; reversed by the Supreme Court of the United States.
• Lavender v. Kurn, 354 Mo. 196, 189 S.W.2d 253 (1945), 327 U.S. 645 (1946)
  • Evidence; holding that Due Process demands that an inference of negligence is not enough to send a case to a jury in a tort case; reversed by the Supreme Court of the United States.
• Minor v. Happersett, 53 Mo. 58 (1873), 88 U.S. 162 (1875)
  • Women's suffrage; holding that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment does not guarantee a woman the right to vote; affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States.
• Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada, 342 Mo. 121, 113 S.W.2d 783 (1938), 305 U.S. 337 (1938)
  • Racial segregation; holding that a state which provides only one educational institution need not allow blacks and whites to attend if there is no separate school for blacks; reversed by the Supreme Court of the United States as not meeting the separate but equal standard of Plessy v. Ferguson.
• Missouri v. Seibert, 93 S.W.3d 700 (Mo. banc 2002), 542 U.S. 600 (2004)
  • Miranda warnings; holding that Missouri's practice of interrogating suspects without reading them a Miranda warning, then reading them a Miranda warning and asking them to repeat their confession is unconstitutional; affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States.
• Rachel v. Walker, 4 Mo. 350 (1836)
  • Slavery; holding that slaves taken into free states became free; overturned twenty years later by Dred Scott v. Sandford.
• Roper v. Simmons, 112 S.W.3d 397 (Mo. banc 2003), 543 U.S. 551 (2005)
  • Capital punishment; holding that the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments forbid imposition of the death penalty on offenders who were under the age of 18 when their crimes were committed; affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States.
• Shelley v. Kraemer, 198 S.W.2d 679 (Mo. banc 1947), 334 U.S. 1 (1948)
  • Racial segregation; holding that the Fourteenth Amendment does not prohibit a state from enforcing restrictive covenants which would prohibit a person from owning or occupying property on the basis of race or color; reversed by the Supreme Court of the United States.
• State v. Mitchell, 170 Mo. 633, 71 S.W. 175 (1902)
  • Attempt and impossibility defense; holding that factual impossibility is not a defense to the crime of attempt. Mitchell is a seminal case in the United States in this area of the law.