Missouri Supreme Court

The Missouri Supreme Court struck down red-light camera laws in St. Louis, Kansas City and St. Peters, The Wall Street Journal's Jacob Gershman reports. The law in St. Louis was struck down because it shifted the burden onto a defendant to prove that he or she wasn't operating the motor vehicle at the time of the violation.

The ordinances authorizing red-light camera violations in the other cities were struck down for other reasons.

The Missouri Supreme Court has struck down a $500,000 cap against some punitive damages, the Kansas City Star's Mark Morris reports. The court ruled in the case of a $1 million verdict awarded to a woman defrauded by a car dealer: "The Supreme Court restored the judgment because [the plaintiff] had filed her claim as a common law fraud, which has existed in Missouri since the first state constitution was written. Because of that, the legislature cannot limit a jury’s ability to set punitive damage amounts, the court ruled in a unanimous decision," Morris further reports. The cap remains in place for causes of action created by the legislature but not for those developed through the common law before the 1820 adoption of Missouri's first constitution.

After Missouri State Trooper Dennis Engelhard was killed while investigating a traffic accident, his same-sex partner sought survivor benefits. Missouri pays benefits to the surivors of highway patrol officers killed in the line of duty, the Associated Press reported. The Missouri Supreme Court has ruled that because the couple were not married that no benefits are owed, according to the AP.

While Missouri prohibits same-sex marriage in its state constitution and a state law, “the result cannot be any different here simply because [Kelly] Glossip and the patrolman were of the same sex. The statute discriminates solely on the basis of marital status, not sexual orientation,” the majority of five justices said according to AP. 

The two-member dissent, however, said the statute should be struck down because it "specifically discriminate against gay men and lesbians by categorically denying them crucial state benefits when their partner dies in the line of duty," according to AP.