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May 14, 2025 |  By: Associated Press

City of St. Louis filed a lawsuit against a new Missouri law

The city of St. Louis and the leader of its city council filed a federal lawsuit Monday against a new Missouri law putting a state-appointed board back in control of the local police department, putting St. Louis among a handful of major U.S. cities that don’t fully oversee law enforcement.

The president of the city’s Board of Aldermen, Megan Green, argues in the lawsuit that the new law violates her rights to free expression, freedom of assembly and to petition state government, all guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The city says the law violates a provision of the Missouri Constitution that prohibits unfunded mandates from the state.

The law, approved by the GOP-controlled Legislature and signed by Governor Mike Kehoe last month, gives the governor the power to appoint four city residents as voting members of a new board to manage the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department to serve along with the city’s elected mayor, currently Democrat Tishaura Jones. The police department of Kansas City, Missouri, is also overseen by such a board.

The lawsuit alleges the new law violates Green’s rights through vague and overly broad provisions that prohibit city officials from taking any action to “impede, obstruct or interfere” with the state board, subjecting them to fines and removal from office. The new law also requires St. Louis to increase its spending on the police department each year through 2028.