Attorney General Chris Koster and his staff will defend the Missouri Senate in the lawsuit Progress Missouri filed last week, accusing the Senate of violating Missouri's "Sunshine" law.
"The Attorney General's Office has communicated to Senate President Pro Tem Tom Dempsey that the AGO will ... vigorously defend the legislature in this matter," Koster's office announced, in a news release.
At almost the same time as Koster's news release, Progress Missouri emailed a fundraising request, under the title, "You won't believe how the Senate responded to our lawsuit."
The email then said Dempsey, R-St. Charles, last Thursday had "rushed legislation through the Senate that would allow them to hire private attorneys. Public funds would be used to defend the Senate in court when they are sued for breaking the law."
Progress Missouri's 16-page lawsuit, filed in the Cole County circuit court last Wednesday, said it "challenges actions by Senators Mike Kehoe, David Sater and Mike Parson, as chairmen of various Senate committees, and actions by the Missouri Senate, prohibiting Progress Missouri Inc. and its representatives from videotaping open meetings."
The group, which champions "progressive" causes and issues, has complained for several months about those denials, arguing that lawmakers' refusal to allow video and audio recording violates Missouri's Open Meetings/Open Records law.
Their attorney sent Kehoe, Parson and Sater a letter on March 12 threatening a lawsuit if their recording-approval policies didn't change.
Before the lawsuit was announced, the Senate had begun debate last Wednesday on Dempsey's bill to give the Senate president pro tem and the House speaker the legal standing to intervene on behalf of the General Assembly in cases challenging the constitutionality of any provision of the Missouri Constitution, state statute, rule, regulation, program or policy.
Dempsey's bill also would give the Legislature standing to pursue its own legal action or defense any time the attorney general declines to defend or appeal a ruling regarding a challenged provision of state law - or defends the law or Constitution in a way that lawmakers consider to be "inadequate."
During last Wednesday's debate, Dempsey agreed to rewrite portions of the bill in the wake of other senators' concerns.
The substitute version the Senate approved Thursday also authorizes the speaker or Senate president pro tem to retain private counsel - paid for by the state's Legal Expense Fund - if a civil action names the House or the Senate as a party, or names an individual legislator, in his or her official capacity, as a party to the suit.
That's the provision that Sean Soendker Nicholson, Progress Missouri's executive director and a plaintiff in the lawsuit filed last week, said this week had been "rushed."
"It's certainly the case that the underlying bill was introduced in February, but the amendment in question wasn't offered until Thursday, and then the whole bill was passed the same day," he told the News Tribune Tuesday. "We tried repeatedly to work with senators to avoid legal action - but Senators Kehoe, Sater and Parson refused to budge."
The three senators, and Senate leaders, have said their decisions are based on a Senate rule - an opinion that likely will be part of the court case.
Dempsey's bill still needs a final Senate vote before it can be heard in the House.
The court has not, yet, scheduled any hearings in the lawsuit.