News & Commentary

We are extremely disappointed that the Missouri Senate chose to pass SB 5 today.

We applaud the U.S. District Court for its ruling recognizing the important claims against the severely underfunded Missouri Public Defender System.

Politicians are throwing up even more restrictive red tape for political gain around abortion access and women’s health in Missouri.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri sent a Sunshine Law request today to the office of Gov. Eric Greitens asking for government transparency on the details of his recently announced plan to use state resources to combat crime in the city of St. Louis.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri sent a Sunshine Law request today to Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft to learn what information his office turned over to the Trump administration’s election commission.The ACLU of Missouri is requesting the Secretary of State’s answers to seven questions the Commission asked in its June 28 letter, including evidence of voter fraud and recommendations to prevent voter disenfranchisement, as well as all communications and documents related to these responses, and any communications between the office and the Commission or any of its members since January 1. The ACLU of Missouri is not requesting any voter roll data. Voters have a reasonable expectation that their voting data will remain secure. Like the commission, the ACLU does not have precautions in place to protect the security of such data.“Our elected officials should be doing everything they can to preserve and advance the right to vote, not endanger it,” said Tony Rothert, ACLU of Missouri legal director. “Perpetuating the myth of rampant voter impersonation is a transparent attempt to conjure up credibility to support policies that weaken our democracy.”Missouri is among a dozen ACLU affiliates across the nation today making a public records request for this information. The deadline for states to submit their responses to the Commission’s questions was July 14.The most recent example of targeted voter suppression in Missouri started in June as the state has made voting more expensive and less accessible to hundreds of thousands of its own citizens when a new voter ID law went into effect.In June, the ACLU of Missouri, ACLU National, and Advancement Project sued Missouri over its new voter ID law, charging it fails to provide mandated funding for voter education, free voter IDs and birth certificates, and training of poll workers. The case will be tried this fall.President Trump’s election commission has begun to meet some of the demands of a federal lawsuit filed by ACLU National on July 10. The lawsuit charged the commission with failing to comply with the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which is designed to ensure public accountability of all advisory committees. Since the ACLU filed its lawsuit, the commission has created a website, disclosed the introductory email and agenda from its first telephonic meeting, and pledged to make all documents related to the commission’s next meeting available before it takes place on July 19.The commission is headed up by Vice President Mike Pence and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, whom the ACLU has successfully sued numerous times over his voter suppression policies. 

Our leaders should be pushing policy decisions that lead to a better future for all -- not rolling back our rights and putting more hard-working Missourians at risk for discrimination because of who they are or what they believe.

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s campaign to gather voter information on behalf of the President is nothing more than a guise for laying the foundation for more voter suppression across the nation.

Privacy Watch applauds Alderman Terry Kennedy for his introduction of Board Bill 66, legislation that would provide a measure of oversight to new surveillance technologies. The bill would require surveillance programs to receive the approval of the Board of Aldermen.Before approval is granted, authorities would need to show that they have in place adequate policies to protect privacy an