News & Commentary

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.

On Aug. 7, 2012, the majority of Missouri voters decided to amend the Missouri Constitution and on Aug. 8th, the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri filed a class action lawsuit challenging one section of that amendment.

On Aug. 6, 2012, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled in favor of the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri’s appeal on behalf of Donald E. Stahl. Stahl, a member of an organization called the 9/11 Questions Group, was arrested in 2009 for holding a sign stating “911 was an inside job” on the Park Avenue Overpass in the city of St. Louis, which is located over the merger of Interstates 44 and 55, during morning rush hour traffic.

ACLU-EM Executive Director Brenda L. Jones announced at the group’s June 16 Annual Membership Meeting that she will retire at the end of this calendar year. “Despite my girlish looks," she kidded, "I am nearing the age of retirement and I’ve decided that this is a good moment in our history for me to pass the baton.”

The American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri received a favorable judgment June 27, 2012, in a lawsuit over the St. Louis Division of Corrections’ failure to respond to the ACLU’s request for information about grievance policies in the jails.