Document Type

White Paper

Publication Date

2026

Abstract

The municipal court system fans the flames of racial tension, oppression, and disenfranchisement by allowing municipalities to appropriate the court to act as government debt-collection agencies and implicitly charging the courts with ensuring the municipalities’ fine-generated revenues are sufficient to maintain inefficient governmental operations.1 ArchCity Defenders, August 2014

The Municipal Court does not act as a neutral arbiter of the law or a check on unlawful police conduct. Instead, the court primarily uses its judicial authority as the means to compel the payment of fines and fees that advance the city’s financial interests.2 The harms of Ferguson’s police and court practices are borne disproportionately by African-Americans, and there is evidence that this is due in part to intentional discrimination based on race.3 Department of Justice, March 2015

Extraordinary action is warranted in Ferguson. To help restore public trust and confidence in the Ferguson municipal court division, the Supreme Court of Missouri today transferred Judge Roy L Richter of the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, to the St. Louis County circuit court, where he will be assigned to hear all of Ferguson’s pending and future municipal division cases.4 ---Missouri Supreme Court March, 2015

The Missouri Supreme Court’s unprecedented decision to take control of Ferguson’s Municipal Court was based primarily on issues raised during sustained protest following the killing of Mike Brown and reports published by ArchCity Defenders and the Department of Justice. These reports highlighted racial disparity in traffic stops, excessive revenue generation, and excessive warrants and arrests and confirmed the lived experiences of poor and Black people in St. Louis: there is a racially discriminatory and profit-driven approach to law enforcement made possible only by the collaborative efforts of local government, police, and courts.

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