ST. LOUIS _ The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a lower court ruling that had struck down requirements for police departments in St. Louis County to adhere to a set of minimum standards and for municipal courts in the county to cap revenue from traffic court at a rate lower than the rest of the state.
Those were two provisions of a court reform bill known as Senate Bill 5, enacted in 2015 in response to the unrest following the shooting of Michael Brown on Aug. 9, 2014, in Ferguson. A blistering report by the U.S. Department of Justice in March 2015 called the Ferguson municipal court an abusive fundraising tool, and a series of investigative stories by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch exposed how Ferguson and other cities relied heavily on court fines and fees to raise revenue for city services.
Several cities in St. Louis County challenged those provisions of SB5 because they were aimed specifically at St. Louis County, calling them "special laws" that are illegal under the Missouri Constitution.
Cole County Circuit Court Judge Jon E. Beetem agreed with the plaintiffs last year in a ruling.
The main source of contention was the way the law unevenly applied to St. Louis County, whose municipalities were banned from generating more than 12.5 percent of their general revenue from traffic fines and fees. The limit was set at 20 percent in the rest of the state, down from 30 percent statewide previously. Under the Supreme Court's decision, the 20 percent cap is in effect statewide, and none of the St. Louis County municipalities are required to adhere to minimum standards.
The Supreme Court upheld the bulk of Beetem's ruling in a 5-1 vote with two judges not participating. However, they threw out a part of Beetem's ruling that found that certain requirements in the law were illegal unfunded mandates barred by the state's Hancock Amendment.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which was filed in November 2015, are Normandy, Cool Valley, Velda Village Hills, Glen Echo Park, Bel-Ridge, Bel-Nor, Pagedale, Moline Acres, Uplands Park, Vinita Park, Northwoods and Wellston, and Normandy Mayor Patrick Green and Pagedale Mayor Mary Louise Carter.
