Missouri Supreme Court upholds felon-in-possession law

The Supreme Court of Missouri [official website] on Tuesday ruled [opinion, PDF] that a statute prohibiting convicted felons from possessing firearms does not violate the Missouri Constitution’s [BallotPedia backgrounder] right to bear arms.

The cameras will help make people more careful when they approach unsafe intersections and especially prevent right-angle accidents that cause catastrophic injuries. Rather, the city will move ahead with a new ordinance governing red-light cameras that will fall within the scope of yesterday’s court ruling.

The St. Louis police department will have to turn over records in a scandal over 2006 World Series tickets after the Missouri Supreme Court threw out a final appeal to block the documents’ release. Officials in St. Louis indicated that red-light cameras were not going anywhere, despite refunds coming to those who recently paid tickets.

An effort to put a measure on the August 2016 ballot to ban red-light cameras in Missouri was voted down in this year’s legislative session. No problem: The technology is available to capture a photo of the driver.

The key question was how cities could properly cite motorists for red-light camera violations. If you received your red-light camera ticket within the last year and a half, don’t pay the fine.

In another ruling involving the city of St. Louis, the court majority found that the ordinance was unconstitutional because it shifted the burden onto the defendant to prove that the defendant was not operating the motor vehicle at the time of the violation.

When the cameras are set up to take a face shot of the motorist, it is much easier to identify who is driving the vehicle.

Messages seeking comment on Tuesday’s court ruling from Joyce, Dotson and McCoy’s attorney were not immediately returned.

The naysayers don’t like the Big Brother theme of the cameras, or paying $100 fines.