Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem on Thursday gave both parties two weeks to submit their final written arguments before he decides whether St. Louis lawyer Elad Gross' lawsuit against A New Missouri can go forward.
A New Missouri is a not-for-profit organization founded last year to support then-Gov. Eric Greitens and his initiatives.
It's labeled as a 501(c)(4) organization, and operates under the federal regulations that allow it to conceal the identities of its donors.
Gross, a former assistant attorney general now in private practice, sued A New Missouri and three of its officers in June, seeking information about the group's operations and spending records.
Catherine Hanaway, a former House speaker and U.S. Attorney, also is a private practice attorney in St. Louis County and represents A New Missouri in Gross' lawsuit.
She wants Beetem to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing Gross can't support his legal claims and has no standing to file the lawsuit.
"He's got an obligation as the plaintiff, in order to have standing, to show that he has had some particularized harm, that he has some special reason to be before this court that is unique to him and not just to the general public," Hanaway told Beetem on Thursday morning. "What he can't fix is that he has not (pleaded), nor will he be able to plead, that he is a beneficiary who - and this is critical in the statute - has benefited from the activities and services of the corporation.
"This statute was intended to allow those who got something from these public benefit corporations to see what the books and records were."
She added, "In fact, 501(c)(4)s can't provide individualized benefits - their very purpose is to benefit the public, generally."
Gross countered: "I am a beneficiary of the organization."
He's argued in the past that A New Missouri's charter said it was created to inform Missourians about the benefits of the Greitens administration's policies and proposals, and as a Missourian, Gross was one of the people who benefited from that information.
He rejected Hanaway's assertion he needed to have contributed to the organization in order to be considered a beneficiary.
Gross said he'd researched several issues about the law's creation in 1994 - including interviews with several former lawmakers who helped write it.
"A New Missouri is the kind of organization that this statute was written for," he told Beetem.
"It wasn't written for the Red Cross or the United Way - organizations that put these records out to the public, that are transparent."
Gross wants the court to let him get records that show how much money A New Missouri has spent, and where that spending has occurred.
He also would like to see the names of the people who donate to it, which hasn't been required in the past by its 501(c)(4) status.
The ability to hide donors' names has produced the term "dark money," signifying contributions from people whose identity is unknown.
But Gross said he doesn't expect to get that information under Missouri law, and told reporters a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that some "dark money" donors can be identified only affected federal law, and not the states.
Gross told Beetem A New Missouri should be required to reveal its financial information, because those are required under state law.
Both Hanaway and Gross agreed there's little precedent to help Beetem decide where the case should go.