Late this summer, we announced that the Show-Me Institute was going to court to compel the state’s Office of Administration (OA) to provide records to us that it had already provided to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), a government union. You can find the details of the case in this story by the Jefferson City News-Tribune, or you can listen to our podcast about the litigation featuring attorney, Dave Roland here.
Two months have now passed since our lawsuit was filed, and so far, the case is proceeding relatively slowly, which we expected. Unsurprisingly, the Office of Administration didn’t immediately surrender and decide to just hand over the documents it’s been giving the AFSCME, so we are still anticipating the case will carry on well into next year. In the interest of transparency, I would have hoped that the OA would have simply provided these documents to us without further delay—transparency for AFSCME should also mean transparency for the rest of the public. But unfortunately, it may take a judge to affirm this notion.
A little more surprising is the fact that AFSCME itself has decided to try and intervene in the case, arguing it has a stake in the resolution of this case. That’s surprising because our litigation doesn’t address AFSCME’s actions, but rather the actions of the government. Time will tell what becomes of this intervention, if anything.
We’ll continue to keep you posted on this important case.
