The Missouri Supreme Court on Oct. 2 grappled with an ambiguous part of the Sunshine Law pertaining to the public release of absentee ballot materials. The high court heard oral arguments in the case involving Bruce Franks Jr., the outgoing ...

Tagged with: Board of Election Commissioners Bruce Franks Jr. city of St. Louis Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District Missouri Supreme Court Sunshine Law

For years, Missouri has handed over data on state employees to a public-sector workers’ union. Now two conservative groups are suing a state agency in Cole County Circuit Court to obtain that data. On Aug. 28, the nonprofit Show-Me Institute ...

Tagged with: American Federation of State County & Municipal Employees Cole County Circuit Court public-sector union Show-Me Institute state workers Sunshine Law United for Missouri

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt this week withdrew a legal brief he filed in a defamation lawsuit arguing the First Amendment allows him to withhold some public records concerning private citizens that were requested by the plaintiff’s attorney. Schmidt originally ...

Tagged with: First Amendment Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt Republican state Rep. Holly Rehder Scott City Scott City Mayor Ron Cummins Sunshine Law

A media organization in Kansas City is in the midst of a Sunshine Law fight with Clay County after an attempt to see how much an attorney was charging the county resulted in a large legal bill. “If this is ...

Tagged with: Billing Rates 2019 Sunshine Law

When Mexico attorney Dave Roland agreed to take up a Sunshine Law case in Jefferson County, he thought it would be a run-of-the-mill matter. Therefore, he decided to take the case on his own, not as the director of litigation ...

Tagged with: Dave Roland Freedom Center of Missouri Jefferson County Mexico Sunshine Law

A series of Sunshine Law lawsuits designed to increase transparency around Missouri’s drug task forces has concluded after a St. Louis County judge approved a consent judgment in the last remaining case on April 19.

Tagged with: marijuana legalization Sunshine Law

  Where a school district sent a county coroner a written request for records under the Missouri Sunshine Law, which was denied and challenged by the school district, the appellate court lacked jurisdiction over the appeal because the trial court’s ...

Tagged with: civil practice jurisdiction Sunshine Law

Where a sheriff, who claimed that disclosure of a 911 recording of an altercation in which he was involved violated the Sunshine Law, sought actual and punitive damages, the permissive nature of the statute does not allow for a remedy ...

Tagged with: civil practice Damages Improper Disclosure Sunshine Law

A Jackson County judge has ordered the City of Raytown to pay more than $42,000 after ruling the city violated the Sunshine Law by denying the release of records in an attempt to shield itself from litigation. On Feb. 7, ...

Tagged with: Jackson County Raytown S. Margene Burnett Sunshine Law

The Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District on Feb. 5 issued a mixed ruling in a Sunshine Law dispute involving absentee ballots cast in the August 2016 democratic primary race between Bruce Franks Jr., now the state representative in District ...

Tagged with: Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District Sunshine Law

Missouri House lawmakers on Tuesday voted against protections for LGBT staffers and gave themselves the option to make some of their emails confidential, despite a voter-approved requirement for transparency. House members changed their records policy as part of a broader ...

Tagged with: Missouri House Sunshine Law