Missouri Supreme Court

Kelly Glossip: ACLU Fights Missouri to Get Benefits for Same-Sex Spouse of Killed Trooper

On Christmas day of 2009, Missouri State Trooper Dennis Engelhard was killed in the line of duty while responding to an accident -- leaving behind his long-time spouse Kelly Glossip. Now, more than three years later, Glossip is still fighting to get basic "survivor benefits" that have been denied ... More >>

Circuit Attorney Resurrects Map Showing Who's Banned From Your Neighborhood

The Circuit Attorney's website got a facelift on Friday -- and has resurrected a map showing which criminal defendants are banned from where you live (a.k.a. "neighborhood orders of protection").  Former Circuit Clerk Mariano Favazza had first launched such a web feature in July 2010, but it wa ... More >>

Listen to Oral Argument from Yesterday's High Court Battle Over Paul McKee's Project

After listening to all 47 minutes of the oral argument that took place in Missouri's Supreme Court yesterday (which we've uploaded below), it all seems to come down to a single word: "project." What's a "project"? How specific does a developer need to be about a redevelopment "project" before a city ... More >>

Some Firefighters Can Live Outside City Limits, State Supreme Court Rules

Yesterday, the Missouri Supreme Court basically told St. Louis city firefighters: "If you have seven years of service under your belt, go ahead and move outside the city limits if you want."So they can finally leave, at last. But will they? "Some will, some wont," says Jeff Rainford, Mayor Francis S ... More >>

Judge Dismisses Class-Action Lawsuit Against Arnold's Red Light Cameras

Traffic cameras have survived yet another class-action lawsuit in Missouri. Last week a Jefferson County judge rejected a suit that aimed to prohibit the use of red light cameras in Arnold, which became the first Missouri city to deploy the cameras in August 2005.In his ruling August 29, Judge Mark ... More >>

Supreme Court Ruling Puts Jamilah Nasheed Back on Ballot [Updated]

Update June 20 -- Mayor Slay has officially endorsed Nasheed for the fifth district senate seat. The mayor tweeted earlier this afternoon: "STL needs her energy in Jeff City." ------ Jamilah Nasheed's plan for world domination can continue, thanks to the Missouri Supreme Court, which ruled yesterd ... More >>

Second St. Louis Judge Rules Against Red Light Cameras

I was on vacation last week so I apologize for missing this bombshell. Still, it's worth mentioning now seeing how it got scant local coverage, with seemingly just one TV station last week reporting the news. On May 22, St. Louis Circuit Court Judge Theresa Counts Burke acquitted State Sen. Jim ... More >>

Missouri's Cyber-Bullying Law Partly Struck Down by State Supreme Court

Missouri Supreme Court justices believe legislators went too far with the 2008 anti-cyber-bullying law they passed in reaction to the suicide of Megan Meier. (You may remember Meier as the 13-year-old from Dardenne Prairie who hung herself after a different girl and that girl's mother posed on MySpa ... More >>

Judge Michael Wolff Enters Health Care Debate

This morning's readers of The New York Times editorial pages who are interested in the current Supreme Court hearings on President Obama's health care bill might find themselves stumbling over a letter to the editor penned by one of our city's finest wordsmiths. Michael A. Wolff, who delivered many ... More >>

State Supreme Court to Decide Whether Missouri's Redistricting Map Is Unconstitutional

​Redistricting is the straw that stirs the bitter, burning, 195-proof partisan cocktail we chug down while squeezing our noses every campaign season before waking up the morning after the election massaging our temples, cursing the gods, wondering why we keep putting ourselves through this madness ... More >>

Lawsuit Accuses QuikTrip of Predatory Pricing

QuikTrip was accused before of price cutting.​You love their corndogs, taquitos and bathtub-sized fountain drinks. And the cheap gas isn't bad, either. But is QuikTrip's low-priced petrol illegally inexpensive? That's what a lawsuit filed last week in federal court contends. Members of t ... More >>

End zone: East St. Louis Flyers, Jose Oquendo and Missouri strip clubs score sympathy

Missouri Supreme Court to Strip Club Owners: "Tough Titties!"

Justices uphold Missouri's nudity ban for strip clubs.​The Missouri Supreme Court yesterday handed strip club owners yet another loss in their legal fight to overturn a sweeping law regulating "adult-oriented businesses." The law passed in 2010 prohibits exotic dancers from displaying their genita ... More >>

In a tiny town just outside Joplin, a landmark adoption case tests the limits of inalienable human rights

Under Fire, City Warms Up to Private Rehabbers

​Last spring, two big cannonballs were lobbed at the city's mechanism for handling properties that have fallen through the cracks and into the public hands. The first blow landed on April 19. That was the day  Audrey Spalding of the Show-Me Institute, a conservative think-tank, released her o ... More >>

Reginald Griffin, Convicted Murderer, Gets Sentence Overturned -- 25 Years Later

It was a different inmate -- with a screwdriver, argued Reginald Griffin. Today, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that he deserves another trial.​Twenty-five years after he was convicted of murdering a fellow inmate in a Missouri prison, Reginald Griffin has gotten a major reprieve from the Missou ... More >>

Jury: Former Owners of Doe Run Lead Smelter Must Pay Families $38 Million

Photo: Jennifer SilverbergWarnings outside the Doe Run smelter in Herculaneum.​A trial lasting three months wrapped up today in St. Louis Circuit Court with a jury awarding 16 plaintiffs $38.5 million in compensatory damages for lead poisoning they sustained living next to a Herculaneum smelter. M ... More >>

Archdiocese Not Liable For Pedophile Priest Robert Johnston

courtesy of SNAP MidwestRobert Johnston: not the archdiocese's fault that they hired a perv.​Score one for the Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis. Because, as a legal ruling today makes clear, even if a Christian ethicist would hold the church accountable for allowing a predatory priest to run roug ... More >>

Missouri Supreme Court: Help Wanted

Are those the current Missouri Supreme Court judges?​Since the Missouri Supreme Court's establishment in 1820, 116 people have served as judges. But only one of them, former judge Ronnie White, was a person of color. That may change this fall, when Gov. Jay Nixon names a successor to Judge Mi ... More >>

Teachers Union Case v. Charter School District Going to MO Supreme Court

Teachers' rights to bargain collectively in Missouri are now headed to the state supreme court.​Are Missouri school boards required to collectively bargain with unions representing their faculties -- and, even more importantly, to do so in good faith?That's the question now heading to the Missouri ... More >>

Rico Paul: Teen Charged with Killing Good Samaritan Has Multiple Priors

Paul, 18, has several prior brushes with the law.​The St. Louis Circuit Attorney's office today charged 18-year-old Rico R. Paul with first-degree murder in the shooting Monday night of Paul Reiter.Police believe that Reiter was killed when he interrupted a burglary at his neighbor's home in the 5 ... More >>

MO Supreme Court Will Decide FOP Status for U. City, Chesterfield Police

The appellate court found that police officers do have a right to collective bargaining -- but then kicked the case to the Missouri Supreme Court.​Are the cities of Chesterfield and University City required to enter into collective bargaining with the Fraternal Order of Police?That was the questio ... More >>

Missouri Ethics Law Gets Bounced by Cole County Judge

An issue relating to the Capitol dome, of all things, has led to Missouri's landmark ethics bill getting thrown out.​We should have known it wouldn't be this easy.Eleven months ago, the Missouri Legislature passed landmark ethics legislation, banning donations from one political action committee t ... More >>

Missouri Senator Trying to Ban Red-Light Cameras Unconcerned About His Own Ticket

Lembke says "idiots" have tried to spin the story as they see fit.​State senator Jim Lembke tells Daily RFT this morning that he's not worried about being found guilty in municipal court last week in St. Louis for a red-light camera ticket. In December Lembke (R - South St. Louis County) filed a b ... More >>

300-Pound Woman's Suit Over Seat Collapse Can Go to Trial, Missouri Supreme Court Finds

Jeanne Moore sued over a Ford Explorer seat that collapsed due to her weight and a crash.​Jeanne Moore, a 300-pound St. Louis County woman who was left a paraplegic after a 2005 car crash, should have the right to bring her lawsuit against Ford Motor Company to trial, the Missouri Supreme Court ru ... More >>

Court of Appeals Hears Argument Over World Series Ticket Scandal

​The Missouri Court of Appeals this morning heard arguments over a protracted lawsuit stemming from the 2006 World Series when St. Louis police officers were accused of taking tickets from scalpers and passing those tickets along to their friends and families. In April of last year St. Louis Circu ... More >>

Attorneys for Archdiocese Demanded Recusal of Gay Judge, Records Show

courts.mo.govLawrence Mooney: Has sat on other appeals that ruled in favor of the archdiocese.​The note from Missouri Court of Appeals Judge Lawrence Mooney to former St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke was just three sentences long. Written on Court of Appeals stationary and dated October 2, 2007, ... More >>

Missouri Sex Offenders All Clear for Trick-or-Treating (If Convicted Prior to '08)

How to know whether your kids are knocking on a sex offender's door? The Jack-o-Lantern might offer a clue.​Remember Missouri sex offenders: If you were convicted prior to August 28, 2008 you're all good for participating in trick-or-treating this Halloween. That said, those of you convicted after ... More >>

Dear St. Louis Resident: Do You Mind Spending Six Months on Jury Duty?

Are you ready to serve?​That's more or less the question being asked to 6,000 St. Louis residents who've recently received letters from the St. Louis Circuit Court regarding what could be the longest trial in city history. The note ask such questions as: What's the most amount of time you can take ... More >>

Next Year, Jury Duty Will Take Even Longer

Image source​Jury duty, that beloved civic rite known to eat up as many as three days even if you're not selected to serve, is about to get even longer. Starting January 1, Missouri judges will have to allow lawyers extra time to look up the litigation history of potential jurors on Case.net, ... More >>

Preservationists Lose Court Appeal Over San Luis Apartments

The San Luis apartments as they appeared last year.​The Missouri Court of Appeals upheld a circuit court's decision yesterday that a group of preservationists had no right to sue over the demolition of the San Luis apartments on Lindell Avenue. The 1960s-era building was owned by the Archdiocese o ... More >>

St. Louis Police Board to Release Full Investigation into World Series Ticket Scandal

​The St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners today announced that it would not fight a judge's order requiring it to turn over its entire Internal Affairs investigation into the so-called World Series Ticket Scandal. The case stems from the 2006 World Series in which police officers were accused o ... More >>

Show Flyer: The Third Annual Anti-Wrecking Ball, Saturday, May 22

​The third annual official Anti-Wrecking Ball fundraiser is taking place on Saturday, May 22, at 8 p.m. at the Historic Stahl Stables (2412 Menard) in Soulard. $10 gets you a free keg beer (singular) and performances from the Union Electric, Leadville and Pretty Little Empire. The show's proce ... More >>

Missouri Chief Justice: "Tough on Crime" is not "Smart on Crime"

Justice Price: Don't throw the book at criminals, read it to them.​The chief justice for the Missouri Supreme Court, William Ray Price Jr., delivered his "State of the Judiciary" speech to the General Assembly yesterday. Price used the time to berate legislators over laws they've made that incarce ... More >>

Missouri Supreme Court to Weigh In Today on Red-Light Cameras

​Five years after they first began popping up in intersections across Missouri, red-light cameras are finally having their day before the state's highest court. Today the Missouri Supreme Court will hear the case of Adolph Belt Jr. a retired Missouri Highway Patrol trooper, who's fighting the red- ... More >>

St. Louis Isn't the Only City With Bad News Bail Bondsmen

Image Via Chico's Bail Bonds not licensed for business in St. Louis...yet​The Post-Dispatch has filed a few very intriguing dispatches lately chronicling the fishy goings-on between a local bail bond kingpin and a St. Louis Circuit Court official.If you haven't yet read the stories (click h ... More >>

Judge Robert Dierker Sticks It to the City, Wins His Right Light Camera Case

randomhouse.comThe author of "Tyranny of Tolerance" prevails over red-light tyrants. ​St. Louis Circuit Court Judge Robert Dierker, Jr., has won his court case challenging a red-light camera ticket issued by St. Louis, according to Missouri Lawyers' Weekly.Drivers aplenty have fought the big-$$$ t ... More >>

Missouri Public Defenders Fight for Right Not to Represent All Accused Criminals

​Any good cop TV show has the same line. Just as the criminal is being placed in shackles, the police officer states: "You have a right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, the state will provide you one." Did you know, though, that that line isn't necessarily true? At least not in Mi ... More >>

Local News Outlets Reporting Brown Surrendered His Law License...That Ain't So, Says the Supreme Court

Both the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the St. Louis Business Journal reported today that former state rep Steve Brown, an attorney, surrendered his law license earlier this week.  Not so, says an e-update from a spokeswoman for the Supreme Court of Missouri. She says neither the court clerk, nor ... More >>

The Verdict on Kansas City's Smoking Ban: Put Out Your Butts, People

Wikimedia CommonsKansas City is free to enforce its indoor smoking ban, per an order issued yesterday by the Missouri Court of Appeals-Western District. According to a story today in the Kansas City Star, "Enforcement of the Kansas City smoking ordinance plays an important part in protecting the hea ... More >>

Missouri's Eminent Domain Battles Caught on Film in "Begging for Billionaires"

www.ij.orgJim RoosBegging for Billionaires, a documentary feature examining eminent domain "abuse" in Missouri, makes its initial screening next month in (of all places) Minnesota.  The film -- nine years in the making -- debuts May 2 as a "Best of Fest" selection at the Minneapolis-St. Paul In ... More >>

Washington University Latest Local School Found Guilty of Age Discrimination

St. Louis attorney Jerome Dobson won an age-discrimination lawsuit yesterday against Washington University. The suit, heard before a jury in St. Louis Circuit Court, claimed that the university forced renowned lung surgeon Joel Cooper out of his job as he approached age 65. Cooper, now with the Univ ... More >>

Guilt-Edged

Pugnacious defense attorney Frank "Tony" Fabbri never backed away from a fight. Then the lawyer ran afoul of the law.

Broad Strokes for Lead Paint Folks

Grand Debate

Can a Catholic university like SLU chow down at the municipal trough?

Peace and Punishment

St. Louis judges turn to Transcendental Meditation to rehab convicted felons

Trick or Treatment

Court-ordered classes for two-bit crooks: Are they a waste of time and money?

Numb and Number

Legal challenges shed light on Missouri's lethal-injection protocols

Left Behind

Bellefontaine Neighbors residents have lived -- and died -- with asbestos for years. The problem's an open secret, but little has been done.

MORE DEATHLY POLITICS FROM JOHN ASHCROFT