JEFFERSON CITY, Mo., December 2, 2024 – The Missouri Broadcasters Association (MBA), along with several lawyers, journalists and Gray Local Media, is challenging the constitutionality of the Missouri law that prohibits use of all witness and victim names in Missouri court records. The Cole County Circuit Court is scheduled to hear pending dispositive motions relating to this challenge this Wednesday, December 4 at 8 a.m.
The hearing will be before Judge Aaron Martin of Moniteau County, who was appointed by the Supreme Court to this case. The case is Michael Gross et al. v. State of Missouri et al., Case No 24AC-CC04658.
The law being challenged was passed by the General Assembly in 2023. It imposes a blanket requirement on all lawyers and judges in Missouri, requiring them to redact from court filings the names and personally identifying information from all witnesses and victims. The redaction requirement applies even to judicial orders and opinions. Since the law’s effective date in August 2023, Missouri judicial rulings refer to witnesses and victims, if at all, with initials, relationship phrases, and other vague indicators.
“News organizations need facts and context to report the whole truth,” said MBA President/CEO Chad Mahoney. Documents are now heavily redacted under this broad-brush statute and a lot of the context is missing. This makes it very difficult for our MBA member stations to inform the public.”
The MBA, Gray and their co-plaintiffs have asserted that the law removes from the public record “valuable information, important to citizens, journalists, watchdogs, historians, and the broader community,” and that it is unconstitutional on multiple grounds. Their motion that is set to be heard on December 4 seeks a judgement that the law is unconstitutional (1) under the First Amendment of the federal constitution, and (2) under the “Open Courts” provision of the Missouri Constitution.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has acknowledged to the court in a July 22 filing that if the statute in question requires blanket redaction of witness and victim names, as plaintiffs contend, it likely violates the First Amendment and Missouri’s Open Courts requirement. The Attorney General’s office contends that the statute does not mean this and it has sought a judgment based on its theory. That motion will also be heard on Wednesday.
“While we have journalists and lawyers as plaintiffs, every Missourian and every person interested in the transparency of state government has an interest in this case,” Mahoney added.
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Missouri Broadcasters Association
1025 Northeast Drive, Jefferson City, MO 65109
(573) 636-6692 • mba@MissouriBroadcasters.org
MissouriBroadcasters.org
CONTACT: Chad Mahoney
E-MAIL: CMahoney@missouribroadcasters.org
