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 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.
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. A successful outcome will force all City Charter amendments to be proposed only by the voters or the Board of Aldermen and not some unaccountable group appointed by the Mayor.
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.