Broadcasters Association Disagrees with Redaction Law

Jefferson City, Mo. (KFMO) - The Missouri Broadcasters Association, along with several lawyers, journalists and Gray Local Media, is challenging the constitutionality of the Missouri law that prohibits the use of all witness and victim names in Missouri court records.

Cole County Circuit Court is scheduled to hear pending motions relating to the challenge Wednesday morning. 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. 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.

MBA officials argue 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. MBA administrators say they seek 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.