News & Commentary

Corrections officers interviewed in report sent to U.S. Department of Justice

ST. LOUIS - The Missouri Supreme Court today found that a Missouri statute that prevents persons who have been appointed guardians because of mental disabilities from receiving in-home care services violates federal anti-discrimination statutes. The American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri represented Andrea Bechtel, a Valley Park woman who requires assistance with her acitivities of daily living because of her physical disabilities. The state had provided her personal care services in her home, but she was kicked out of the program in 2005 after the legislature amended the statute to exclude persons who have a guardian.

JEFFERSON CITY, MO – The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Eastern Missouri filed a lawsuit challenging the latest attempt by a political operative to rewrite Missouri’s state Constitution and ban equal opportunity programs in the state.

POPLAR BLUFF, MISSOURI, May 27, 2008 -The American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri has filed suit against the City of Poplar Bluff after the City’s public library disciplined a part-time employee who objected to participating in the promotion of a Harry Potter book.The employee, Deborah Smith, had religious objections to the promotion, which she believed encouraged children to worship the occult.

ST. LOUIS, April 6, 2008 -Valley Park Mayor Jeffrey Whittaker widely circulated campaign materials claiming that the ACLU backed his opponent for the upcoming April 8th election. Contrary to Whittaker’s claims, the ACLU is not involved in the electoral politics of the City of Valley Park or any other city in Missouri or anywhere in the United States. The ACLU is a non-partisan, public interest organization devoted exclusively to protecting the basic civil liberties of all Americans. Whittaker’s claim that we recruited or are involved in any way with his opponent is blatantly false.

ACLU Celebrates Triumph Of Equal Opportunity

ST. LOUIS, March 18, 2008 -The American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri has filed suit against the City of St. George and the police officer whose threats to fabricate charges against a young motorist were captured on videotape.

ST. LOUIS, February 26, 2008-The American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri filed a federal lawsuit today on behalf of a solider currently serving in Iraq. Army Specialist Anthony Collins of Charlie Company’s 327th Infantry Regiment returned to St. Louis on leave from war-torn Iraq, he encountered the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, whose officers pepper-sprayed him, forced him to the ground, handcuffed him and arrested him near a routine police checkpoint on June 30, 2006.

COURT UPHOLDS SLAPP SUIT DISMISSAL