STLPR0%
The legal decisions shaping the future of Missouri elections and local police 17%
By Danny Wicentowski0%
5/29/2026, 1:20:21 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 19 faulty reasoning types, including Recency Bias, Availability Heuristic, and Biased Writer Voice, with Framing Effect as the most egregious example at 25.6% saturation with 116 hits. Analysis detected 774 faulty-reasoning hits from 453 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 32.3% and a BS Rank of 17% (14,088 of 16,813 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 83.80% of the article peer group.
An unusually fast verdict this month from the Missouri Supreme Court has set the stage for voters to use a U.S.
House map in August that could soon be challenged — and reversed — by a public referendum.
On May 12, just hours after hearing oral arguments over the use of the new congressional map, the court delivered unanimous decisions in two related cases.
That turnaround is “super unusual, but it does happen,” said attorney Benjamin Wilson, who discussed the case on this month’s edition of the Legal Roundtable on "St.
Louis on the Air."
He noted that the Supreme Court issued a couple of same-day decisions in 2024 involving abortion and election issues.
It’s not the only recent case where speed is a decisive factor.
In St.
Louis, a state-run police board is seeking an expedited ruling to force the city to spend another $67 million on the police budget.
Facing multiple lawsuits over the legal definition of “revenue” – and whether the millions of dollars from the Rams settlement should be considered for the department’s budget — the board is itself suing the City of St.
Louis.
In its lawsuit, the board calls upon an obscure law enacted by Missouri’s legislature more than 60 years ago.
“They cited this really funny statute I'd never heard of before,” said Wilson, who holds the role of Stanton First Amendment Fellow in the First Amendment Clinic at the Washington University Law School.
“It was passed in 1961.
It gives police boards authority to use office space, telegraph lines, watch boxes and firearms and all kinds of equipment; they can just use it for their purposes.
But also in that statute is this provision that allows them to [compel] action by the city or whoever's opposing their revenue request.”
Along with Wilson, the Legal Roundtable included attorney Eric Banks, a former city counselor and former state prosecutor, and Erica Slater, a founding partner at the Clayton law firm Gunn Slater.
The panel discussed other cases, including those of a federal judge who used a local immigration case to make a point about national politics and a Louisiana couple suing a Creve Coeur fertility clinic.
To hear the full conversation with the Legal Roundtable, listen to “St.
Louis on the Air” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube, or click the play button below.
“St.
Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St.
Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region.
The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer.
Layla Halilbasic is our production assistant.
The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
Analysis
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