News & Commentary

Late yesterday, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri issued a permanent injunction in Clary v. Cape Girardeau that prohibits the city from enforcing its unconstitutional “noise” ordinance. The law strictly prohibits “noise-producing activity” which it vaguely defines to include “yelling, shouting, hooting, whistling or singing on any public street… so as to annoy, disturb the quiet, comfort or repose of any persons in the vicinity.”

Vehicle Stop Reports, released annually by the Attorney General’s Office, reveal the dire state of racially biased policing in Missouri. According to the 2014 data, Black drivers were 1.75 times more likely to be stopped, 1.89 times more likely to be searched, and 1.84 times more likely to be arrested than white drivers. However, police discovered contraband in the vehicles of white drivers 1.26 times more frequently than in those of Black drivers. The trend is indisputable and disheartening, and it also only reveals the tip of the iceberg.

On Tuesday, February 23, the Missouri state legislature will hear five abortion-restriction bills. House bills 2068, 2069, 2070, and 2071 (R-Franklin) and HB 2371 (R-Koenig). These bills, along with SB 644 which awaits debate on the senate floor after quickly passing out of committee, ride on the coattails of the misleading videos released last summer by the Center for Medical Progress questioning Planned Parenthood’s medical ethics, allegations of which the organization has since been repeatedly cleared both at the state and federal levels.

Senate Bill 916 (Schaefer - R) proposes alterations to the Missouri Human Rights Act that purport to protect religious freedom but in fact merely expand opportunities for discrimination. The language of this bill essentially removes all reasonable parameters for qualification as a religious organization, stating that any entity which “holds itself out to the public in whole or in part as religious,” even unaffiliated entities such as hospitals and schools, may discriminate against formerly protected populations under the tenuous guise of religious freedom.

The ACLU of Missouri and PROMO released the following statement today in response to the filing and referral of SJR39, Sen. Bob Onder's proposed religious exemption amendment to Missouri's constitution:

Jeffrey Mittman, Executive Director of the ACLU of Missouri, released the following statement regarding the Ferguson City Council vote on the proposed consent decree with the United States Department of Justice:

Friday evening, the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri issued a preliminary injunction in Free the Nipple, et al., v. City of Springfield. The injunction stops Springfield from enforcing a discriminatory provision in the City’s indecent exposure law that made it illegal for women to show any portion of their breasts beneath the areola as an act of protest.

A federal trial gets underway today over voting rights and the effects of race discrimination in the Ferguson-Florissant School District. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Missouri is challenging the Ferguson-Florissant School District's at-large electoral system, charging it dilutes the votes of African-Americans in violation of the Voting Rights Act.

Today, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Missouri, in conjunction with the Don’t Shoot Coalition and other community partners, announced the filing of The Fair and Impartial Policing Act, bipartisan legislation sponsored by Senator Jamilah Nasheed (D-St. Louis) and Representative Shamed Dogan (R-Ballwin).