Case over subpoenas to Nixon administration finished, for now

Cole County Circuit Judge Dan Green on Tuesday closed the court case over House Speaker Tim Jones' subpoenas issued to members of Gov. Jay Nixon's administration.

Green's action followed Monday afternoon's motion by Nixon's attorney - former assistant attorney general Jim McAdams, who now works at the Insurance, Financial Institutions and Professional Registration department - voluntarily dismissing the case.

McAdams originally filed the suit June 27, asking the court to prohibit Jones and his special Bipartisan Investigative Committee on Privacy Protection and Rep. Stanley Cox, R-Sedalia, the committee's chairman, from enforcing subpoenas issued or expected to be issued to six members of Nixon's administration only hours before a hearing that had been scheduled for 10 a.m. June 27.

Plaintiffs in McAdams' lawsuit included Administration Commissioner Doug Nelson, Policy Director Jeff Harris, Nixon Deputy Chief Counsel Chris Pieper, Peter Lyskowski and Kristy Manning, and former Revenue Director Alana Barrigan-Scott, who now is an administrative hearing commissioner.

Jones argued state law gives him the authority to issue subpoenas on behalf of any committee or any House member - and that the subpoenas were issued only after the administration officials backed out of an agreement to testify before the committee as it investigated the Revenue department's policy of scanning and keeping copies of Missourians' personal documents when they applied for driver's and non-driver's licenses and concealed weapons permits.

But McAdams had argued in the initial lawsuit that the committee wasn't a proper committee under the House rules, and that the subpoenas had other legal problems.

None of those questions has been resolved.

Green issued a preliminary order prohibiting enforcement of the subpoenas, and scheduled a hearing on the case for later this month.

McAdams last week had moved for another change of judge, but dropped that request with his voluntary dismissal.