News & Commentary

Columbia, Mo.- The ACLU of Missouri asked a state court to allow it to intervene on behalf of Missouri school children whose disabilities put them at heightened risk for COVID-19. The effort comes in Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s class-action lawsuit seeking to prevent any school district from implementing universal masking COVID- 19 safety measures. 

ST. LOUIS – On Wednesday, September 15, the ACLU of Missouri filed suit on behalf of ArchCity Defenders against the St. Louis City Department of Corrections in the Circuit Court of St. Louis for failure to comply with Missouri Sunshine Laws. The requested records pertain to repeated incidents of detainees being abused by corrections officers at the St. Louis City Justice Center (CJC).

Jackson County: On August 13, 2021, Jackson County Circuit Judge Jalilah Otto ordered the state of Missouri to allow a young woman who aged out of foster care during the pandemic to re-enter foster care, as required by the Supporting Foster Youth and Families Through the Pandemic Act signed by former President Trump last December. The ACLU of Missouri and Legal Services of Eastern Missouri sued on behalf of one eligible youth to enforce Missouri’s obligations to her and other youth in her position, but the court’s decision neither provides relief for the estimated hundreds of youth unlawfully expelled from care by the Children’s Division nor requires Missouri to meet its obligations to facilitate re-entry by other eligible youth.

St. Louis: Today, United States District Judge Matthew T. Schelp entered a consent decree in a case brought by the ACLU of Missouri against the City of St. Louis regarding the unconstitutional treatment of protesters by police. The ACLU of Missouri brought a challenge to police tactics used against protestors amid widespread protests of police killings without accountability. Among other things, the decree places stringent limits on the use of chemical munitions at protests, mandates specific warnings before people can be required to disperse or gassed, implements training to discourage the misuse of low-level ordinances to arrest peaceful protesters, requires officers at protests to wear ID at all times or be disciplined, and compels the department to put its protest-related policies online where they are accessible to the public.

Kansas City Protester Settles Lawsuit and Ends Kansas City Police Department’s Use of “Banishment Order” 

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals continued to block Missouri’s HB 126 — a sweeping abortion ban passed in 2019 — from being enforced.

The ACLU of Missouri, a member of the Privacy Watch Coalition, celebrates 8th Ward Alderwoman Annie Rice for the reintroduction of Board Bill 31 (Community Control over Police Surveillance) which would require public oversight of surveillance technologies.

This year the ACLU of Missouri tracked 727 pieces of legislation in the state legislature, ranging from police reform to attacks on the First Amendment, voting rights, trans youth, and reproductive freedom.

The ACLU of Missouri celebrates the bipartisan work of the Missouri legislature which passed critical reforms limiting the use of restraint and seclusion in Missouri schools.