Beetem rules for state Senate in committee complaints

The Missouri Senate can prohibit groups from recording Senate committee meetings because the state Constitution's authorization for the body to create its own rules supersedes the state's open meeting laws, Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem ruled Tuesday.

That was the Senate's argument against a lawsuit by Progress Missouri, which complained that three state senators - including Mike Kehoe, R-Jefferson City - had prohibited the group from taking video recordings of various Senate committee meetings.

Beetem's nine-page ruling granted the Senate's motion to dismiss the lawsuit, saying it raised "political questions immune from judicial review."

The senators at the heart of Progress Missouri's lawsuit said they were pleased with Beetem's ruling.

"Missouri's Constitution establishes three co-equal branches of government," the statement said. "The Constitution also allows the Senate to adopt its own rules relating to its internal proceedings.

"The judge's decision appropriately recognizes the authority of the Senate."

The statement was signed by Kehoe, Senate President Pro Tem Tom Dempsey, R-St. Charles, Majority Leader Ron Richard, R-Joplin, and two other committee chairs, Mike Parson, R-Bolivar, and David Sater, R-Cassville.

They noted all Senate meetings "are open to the public," even if permission to record hasn't been granted.

The lawsuit had argued that the refusal to allow recordings violated Missouri's Sunshine Law, which includes a section that says: "A public body shall allow for the recording by audiotape, videotape, or other electronic means of any open meeting (and) may establish guidelines regarding the manner in which such recording is conducted so as to minimize disruption to the meeting."

But, Beetem wrote in a footnote: "This court does not because it cannot determine, because of the political question doctrine, whether or not the provisions of the Missouri Open Records and Open Meetings Law, also known as the "Sunshine Law,' has been violated under the facts of this case."

Sean Soendker Nicholson, Progress Missouri's executive director and a plaintiff in the case, told the News Tribune Tuesday afternoon that Beetem's ruling was "disappointing. We don't think the Senate should be able to ignore the Sunshine Law - or any other valid law - just because they find it inconvenient.

"We're reviewing the decision and our options now, and will figure out our next steps soon."

Beetem heard arguments in the case June 19, and accepted the state's position that the issue Progress Missouri raised was a "political question" that lawmakers - not the courts - must decide.

"A state legislature is authorized to establish rules governing its own proceedings, and so long as those rules do not violate some other provision of the constitution, it ordinarily is not within a court's prerogative to approve, disapprove, or enforce them," Beetem wrote, quoting "C.J.S. Constitutional Law," a legal reference work similar to an encyclopedia.

"For example, it is well settled that "internal procedural aspects of the legislative process ... and rules of procedure are not subject to judicial control or revision.'"

Jeremiah Morgan, Missouri's deputy solicitor general, had argued the state Constitution gives the House and Senate the power to "determine the rules of its own proceedings."

Beetem also noted the state Supreme Court dealt with that power in a 1970 case, where the court ruled "the people of Missouri have specifically made a "textually demonstrable constitutional commitment' to its house of representatives power to be the "sole judge' of the qualifications of its own members. That fact is not debatable."

Beetem said the same legal "analysis is equally applicable" in the Senate's defense against the Progress Missouri lawsuit.

The judge also ruled Progress Missouri can't claim a free-speech right to record the meetings.

"There is no constitutional right, either under free speech or association, to personally record (whether video or audio) open public meetings," Beetem wrote.