State Court Systems

State courts hear the great majority of cases filed in the United States, including most criminal prosecutions, traffic cases, family and divorce matters, contract and injury suits, probate, and landlord-tenant disputes, tens of millions of cases each year compared with a few hundred thousand in federal court. Most states have three levels: trial courts, often divided into courts of limited and general jurisdiction, intermediate appellate courts, which most states have, and a court of last resort, usually called the supreme court. New York's highest court is the Court of Appeals, and Texas and Oklahoma have separate highest courts for criminal cases.

States choose judges in several ways. Some hold partisan elections, others nonpartisan elections, and others use merit selection, the Missouri Plan adopted in 1940, in which a commission nominates candidates, the governor appoints one, and the judge later faces a yes-or-no retention vote. A few states let the governor or legislature appoint judges. Most state judges face voters at some point, unlike federal judges with life tenure. Judicial election spending has grown sharply, and a 2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court race became the most expensive in American history.

State supreme courts have the final word on state law and state constitutions, and the U.S. Supreme Court will not review their decisions when they rest on adequate and independent state grounds, a principle reaffirmed in Michigan v. Long in 1983. In Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal in 2009, the Supreme Court held that due process required a West Virginia justice to step aside from a case involving a major campaign donor. Supporters of judicial elections say they make judges accountable, while critics say campaigns and fundraising threaten impartiality.