The Freedom Center of Missouri’s Director of Litigation, Dave Roland, recently sat down for an interview with the Cowboy & Judge show on ABC30 in St. Louis. This wide-ranging conversation covers the organization’s perspective on individual liberty, its relationship to Dave’s religious background, and the challenges inherent in doing high-level public interest litigation.
On October 31, an officer of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department gave citations to Ray Redlich and Chris Ohnimus. Their alleged offense? Giving sandwiches to the homeless. The citations required Redlich and Ohnimus to appear in St. Louis City Municipal Court on the morning of December 4, to face the charges against them. If either of the two failed to appear for this court date, the court could have issued warrants for their arrest and they would also have…
A couple of months ago Dave Roland, the Freedom Center of Missouri’s director of litigation, was invited to take part in a special project by Time Magazine. French photographic artist JR would take pictures of a couple hundred people from all sides of the debate on firearms in America, then allow them – in their own words – to explain their perspective. The photographs would then be woven into an interactive mural. A still version of the mural would be…
In the fall of 2009, more than one year before Dave and Jenifer Roland founded the Freedom Center of Missouri, an African-style hair braider named Salimato Kouyate contacted Dave to ask for help. The Missouri Board of Cosmetology and Barber Examiners had sued her, trying to put her out of business because she earned money by braiding hair and had not first completed the 1,500 hours’ worth of training that state law requires to act as a licensed cosmetologist. That…
A decade and a half ago a courageous woman, Susette Kelo, waged a desperate battle to save her neighborhood from a city’s effort to condemn the neighborhood’s homes and business and to hand those properties over to a private developer. Susette’s little pink house became the focal point of one of the most important property rights battles in American history. Now a new movie, Little Pink House, starring Catherine Keener and Jeanne Tripplehorn, dramatizes her story. Although the film has been…
In the above video, Ron Calzone explains in his own words the basis and critical importance of our Citizen Activist Free Speech case. This case involves a Missouri statute that requires citizen activists to register as lobbyists and (under threat of huge fines and criminal penalties) to file regular reports with the government regarding efforts to talk to government officials about public policy – even if no one is paying the activist to speak on their behalf. The Missouri Ethics…
Recent publicity has resulted in a spike in the number of people trying to learn about the Freedom Center of Missouri and the work that we do. If you’re one of the folks just now hearing about our work, we’re glad you’re checking out our website. The “About Us” section will give a general overview of our mission, our staff, and our Board of Directors, but in this post we wanted to highlight several of the successes we’ve seen over…
In just a few weeks the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to hand down a decision in Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer, the most important religious liberty case it has considered in nearly three decades – and a case that originated right here in Missouri. The question before the Court is: “Does the First Amendment allow governments to discriminate against religious organizations for no reason other than that they are religious?” The way the Supreme Court answers this question will have…
Dear Friend of the Freedom Center, As I write this I am both exhausted and exhilarated. Last Thursday Ron Calzone and I were at the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis, where the Freedom Center argued in favor of a very simple constitutional principle: The Fourth Amendment prohibits law enforcement officers from pulling people over unless the officer has an articulable and reasonable suspicion that the vehicle or its occupants are in violation of a law. This idea shouldn’t be…
Dear Friend of the Freedom Center, Christmas is just days away, and here at the Freedom Center we are eager to celebrate the birth of Jesus and the promise of love, peace, and redemption that He brought into the world. We hope that this season will find you and your family happy, healthy, and hopeful about the potential for the coming New Year! We are also celebrating an early Christmas gift from St. Louis media in the form of excellent coverage…