News & Commentary

JEFFERSON CITY, MO —United States District Judge Nanette Laughrey granted a preliminary injunction Nov. 15 that requires all Missouri prisons to notify senders whenever written materials they send are censored, seized and withheld from prisoners. The judge also ordered that after getting such notice, senders must have an opportunity to appeal the censorship.

ST. LOUIS — Kelly Glossip, who is challenging the discriminatory survivor benefits policy of the Missouri Department of Transportation (MODOT) and Highway Employees’ Retirement System, filed his brief with the Missouri Supreme on Monday, Nov. 5, 2012. Glossip’s partner, Dennis Engelhard, was a Missouri state trooper killed in the line of duty while responding to an accident on Christmas Day 2009. In addition, elected officials; law school professors; and a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) law enforcement organization filed amici briefs on Glossip’s behalf.

ST. LOUIS, MO — The Supreme Court of the United States announced Sept. 25, 2012, that it will hear the State of Missouri v. McNeely. The American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri represents Tyler McNeely.

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO – Sept. 6, the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Cape Girardeau on behalf of the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (TAK). TAK members had planned to place handbills on the windshields of parked cars on Sept. 28, until they discovered this is considered a crime by the City of Cape Girardeau.

On Sept. 4, United States District Eastern District of Missouri Judge John A. Ross approved a consent judgment in a lawsuit against the city of St. Ann regarding a restriction of Eileen Grant McGeoghegan’s right to free speech. The city of St. Ann is responsible for paying her the $1 in damages she requested and is enjoined from enforcing its ordinance restricting political signs. She was represented by Anthony Rothert and Grant Doty, attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri.

ST. LOUIS, MO — The American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri’s civil suit against the city of St. Louis and Correctional Medical Services, the medical provider for the city jails that is now known as Corizon, was dismissed Aug. 30, 2012. Originally filed in 2010 on behalf of an HIV-positive inmate at the Medium Security Institute in St. Louis, the ACLU-EM’s lawsuit cited life-threatening deliberate indifference to a serious medical condition.

ST. LOUIS — On Aug. 27 the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri sent a position paper to President of the Board of Aldermen Lewis Reed. Entitled “Still Suffering in Silence: Continuing Human Rights Abuses in St. Louis Correctional Centers,” the paper is part of an ongoing dialogue between the ACLU-EM and the St. Louis Board of Aldermen that began after the ACLU-EM published its 2009 report—Suffering in Silence—disclosing allegations of misconduct witnessed by six corrections officers and a handful of inmates. Shortly after that report, the Board of Aldermen mandated that the St. Louis City jails authorities work with the ACLU-EM to create an independent oversight mechanism for the jails. The talks stalled more than a year ago but, as the ACLU-EM states in a letter to Reed, the organization wanted to meet its responsibilities in the project by issuing its conclusions to the Board.

On Aug. 22, 2012, the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri filed a lawsuit challenging the House of Worship Protection Act, which goes into effect on Aug. 28. According to the law, a person commits the crime of disrupting a house of worship if such person disturbs or disquiets a house of worship by using profane discourse, or rude or indecent behavior. Asserting that this infringes on free speech rights, the ACLU-EM is representing members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and Voice of the Faithful of Kansas City, whose peaceful protest activities would be illegal under the law.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri will present its Civil Liberties Award to Brenda Jones at the 41st Annual Bill of Rights Celebration, from 7 to 11 p.m., Friday, Sept. 14, at the Soulard Preservation Hall in St. Louis.