News & Commentary

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO. — The federal district court in Cape Girardeau declared on March 20, 2012, that Missouri’s statute prohibiting flag desecration is unconstitutional and permanently enjoined the state from enforcing the law. The decision came in a case brought by the ACLU of Eastern Missouri on behalf of Frank Snider, who was arrested and held in jail for eight hours on a charge of violating the statute.

ST. LOUIS — On Feb. 28, 2012, the ACLU of Eastern Missouri applauded the City of Ballwin for repealing its ordinance that made it a crime to extend a body part out of a car window. The ACLU represented Steven Pogue in municipal court after he was charged with violating the ordinance for gesturing with his middle finger to a driver who ran a red light. The officer pulled over Pogue rather than the red-light violator, and charged him with an ordinance violation.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – A federal district court ruled Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012, that the Camdenton R-III School District must stop censoring web content geared toward the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities through discriminatory filtering software. The ruling orders the district to stop blocking content based on the viewpoints expressed by the website.

ST. LOUIS — The ACLU of Eastern Missouri filed a lawsuit Jan. 25, 2012, against the City of St. Louis and its Division of Corrections over their failure to respond to a request for public records.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. January 9, 2012--The American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri (ACLU-EM) has filed a lawsuit challenging the language of an initiative that would appear on the November 2012 ballot. The initiative would transfer control of the St. Louis Police Department from the state of Missouri to the City of St. Louis. However, the summary fails to inform voters that the initiative creates important exemptions to the Civilian Review provisions of the Missouri Racial Profiling Law and to parts of the Missouri Sunshine Law. These exemptions would apply only to St. Louis.

ST. LOUIS – On Jan. 3, 2012, the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Eastern Missouri filed a lawsuit charging the Salem Public Library and its board of trustees with unconstitutionally blocking access to websites discussing minority religions by improperly classifying them as “occult” or “criminal.” Salem resident Anaka Hunter contacted the ACLU after she was unable to access websites pertaining to Native American religions or the Wiccan faith for her own research. After protesting to the library director, Glenda Woff

JEFFERSON CITY – The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Eastern Missouri will be in court Wednesday, November 30 to argue on behalf of Kelly Glossip, whose partner, Dennis Engelhard, was a state trooper killed in the line of duty while responding to an accident on Christmas Day, 2009. Missouri offers survivor benefits to spouses of state troopers who are killed in the line of duty, but excludes committed same-sex partners from receiving those benefits. Glossip is seeking the same survivor benefits provided to different-sex partners.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – A federal judge granted class certification this week in the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Eastern Missouri’s federal lawsuit charging Linn State Technical College with violating the constitutional rights of its students by forcing them to submit to mandatory drug tests as a condition of their enrollment. The ACLU now represents a class of all current and future students seeking degrees or certificates at the college.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Eastern Missouri and the ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri filed today a lawsuit challenging the misleading description of a constitutional amendment that will be put to a vote in November 2012 and which would deny religious protections to prisoners and would allow students to refuse to participate in any assignment that they claim violates their religious beliefs.