The Society’s resources are limited. Our preference is to support cases that can not only provide relief for aggrieved parties but result in precedent setting case law discouraging similar activities in the future. Below are legal cases the Society is currently supporting:
This legal action challenges a “Guaranteed Basic Income” program of the City of St. Louis. Since January, 2024 that program had been providing $500 per month to persons with children in St. Louis City Schools, selected by a lottery. The premise of the legal action is a Missouri constitutional provision that forbids granting public money to private individuals.
On Aug. 2, 2024 Circuit Judge Joseph Whyte issued a Temporary Restraining Order agreeing that both “the Missouri Constitution and the St. Louis City Charter forbid the City from giving gratuitous, no strings attached cash payments of public funds to private individuals.” Judge Whyte’s Order effectively stopped the “Guaranteed Basic Income” program in its tracks. Owing to the lawsuit’s success, the City has announced a plan to use only private funds for the program.
This action seeks to invalidate the newly-created City Charter Commission of the City of St. Louis, created as a way to bypass the Board of Aldermen and the initiative process in revising or amending the City Charter. As a result of the suit, the City has admitted that all City Charter amendments must be proposed only by the voters or the Board of Aldermen and not by some unaccountable group appointed by the Mayor. The plaintiff is pursuing a permanent injunction to prevent a change of position by the City in the future.i
This action seeks to challenge the legality of the City of St. Louis’s custom and practice of so called “Aldermanic Courtesy” whereby land use and other administrative decisions are controlled by a particular alderman without regard to the law. A successful outcome would benefit residents, commercial establishments, and developers trying to navigate the City’s Byzantine land use regulatory process. Adverse rulings on procedural grounds will be appealed to the Missouri Supreme Court.
This action seeks to invalidate extra-legal budget practices of the City of Pine Lawn, involving expenditures without a lawful budget. A successful outcome would force some 90 municipalities in St. Louis County to present honest annual budgets.
This action is a Missouri Sunshine Law suit seeking disclosure of hospital trustee plans for the future of Perry County Memorial Hospital, and may lead to broader litigation concerning the legality of such plans–a matter with considerable potential impact on rural hospital systems, statewide.