The Missouri Broadcasters Association is challenging a 2023 law that calls for the redaction of all victim and witness names from public court records.
On Wednesday, Judge Aaron Martin of Moniteau County heard oral arguments for and against repealing Senate Bill 130, which became effective Aug. 28, 2023. Attorney Mark Sableman represented the broadcasters association and said the law violates hundreds of years of common law precedent.
“In the common law system that the United States inherited from England, cases are decided based on the facts,” Sableman said. “Often, the decisions based on those facts and circumstances become the precedents that are followed.”
The two main arguments Sableman presented to the court were that Senate Bill 130 violated the First Amendment of the United States and the open courts provision of the Missouri Constitution. A news release by the Missouri Broadcasters Association said court rulings now refer to witnesses and victims by initials or relationship phrases, if they are directly referenced at all.
“When the state of Missouri took names of witnesses and names of victims out of court filings, it made those filings much less understandable and intelligible and cut off journalists and the public from understanding fully what was going on in the judicial system,” Sableman said.
Sableman said there is no national precedent for a redaction law that is as extensive as the one in Missouri. He said there were two states that filed similar laws, but these only applied to specific cases. Hawaii required courts to seal all medical and health records, while Ohio mandated that some juvenile court records be sealed.
“Interestingly, both of those laws were struck down as unconstitutional,” Sableman said.
Plaintiffs and defendants have two weeks to present additional findings, which Judge Martin will then use to decide on the future of the case.
Copyright 2024 KBIA