News & Commentary

March 2, 2011--The American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri (ACLU-EM) today said that St. Louis City officials and union representatives have walked away from negotiations to create an independent oversight agency for the St. Louis jails. “These negotiations were carried out at the behest of the Board of Aldermen,” said Brenda Jones, Executive Director of the ACLU-EM. “After a year of productive negotiations, it is tragic that some officials of the city have walked away, even as the accusations of abuse escalate. ”

ST. LOUIS, January 5, 2011 -- Information uncovered by the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri through a Sunshine Law request shows the Department of Corrections has a severe shortage of the drug sodium thiopental, one of three drugs used for lethal injection executions in Missouri. The drug is necessary for an execution to be constitutional in Missouri, and the remaining supply is limited and set to expire in March. The sole U.S. manufacturer of the drug is not currently producing it.

JEFFERSON CITY, MO – The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Eastern Missouri and the ACLU of Kansas & Western Missouri filed a lawsuit today 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 of last year. 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 opposite-sex partners.

November 23, 2010 – A federal court entered a judgment yesterday prohibiting St. Francois County Sheriff Daniel Bullock from enforcing Missouri’s statutes prohibiting desecration of the national and Missouri Flags and protests near funerals. The order came in a case filed earlier this year by the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri on behalf of Ms. Shirley Phelps-Roper a suit which sought to protect citizens desiring to engage in constitutionally protected expressive conduct.

ST. LOUIS, November 18, 2010--The American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri (ACLU-EM) has filed a civil suit against the City of St. Louis and Correctional Medical Services (CMS), the medical provider for the city jails. Filed on behalf of an HIV-positive inmate at the Medium Security Institute in St. Louis, the lawsuit cites life-threatening deliberate indifference to a serious medical condition. The inmate was incarcerated in late winter of this year, and for the first sixteen days of his incarceration was denied the life saving medication for which he has a daily prescription. During that period he was given only Tylenol, despite repeated attempts by him, a friend, and his doctor to re-establish his prescribed medical regime.

October 12, 2010--The American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri (ACLU-EM) filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Correctional Medical Services (CMS) and the City of St. Louis today. ?The wrongful death lawsuit was filed on behalf of Landa Poke, sister of Courtland Lucas. Lucas died in the custody of the St. Louis City Justice Center on May 25, 2009. Poke is represented by ACLU-EM cooperating attorney Rodney Holmes.

August 16, 2010 - The American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri today won a judgment in favor of Plaintiff Shirley Phelps-Roper, protecting her First Amendment right to freedom of speech. Chief United States District Judge Fernando J. Gaitan, Jr., declared Missouri’s funeral protest statute unconstitutional. The court also struck down a back-up statute intended to go in effect when the original law was found unconstitutional.

Court of Appeals Voids Termination of Immigrant’s Parental Rights

June 30, 2010– In response to civil liberties threats caused by the recent passage of Arizona’s racial profiling law, the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri issued a travel alert today informing Missouri residents of their rights when stopped by law enforcement when traveling in Arizona. The unconstitutional law, known as SB 1070, requires law enforcement agents to demand "papers" from people they stop who they suspect are not authorized to be in the U.S. If individuals are unable to prove to officers that they are permitted to be in the U.S., they may be subject to warrantless arrests without any probable cause that they have committed a crime.