Story Archive

Out of Court

Antonio Morgan, 28, says he went to court to pay a traffic ticket — but his kids weren’t allowed into the courtroom. So he left them outside with a friend’s girlfriend watching them — and a cop arrested him for child endangerment. “I was paying that fine for a year,” he said. A court committee surveyed St. Louis County, Mo., municipal courts, and 37 percent of those that answered said they didn’t allow children in; 10 percent didn’t allow anyone except the person on the docket. Yet missing your court date can also lead to further penalties. “This practice is not only a clear violation of the Missouri Constitution, but it also subjects those courts to potential claims for violations of constitutional rights,” the presiding judge of the county circuit court said. He urges judges to open their courtrooms. (AC/St. Louis Post-Dispatch) ...Come to court: that’s an order. Leave your kids: that’s an order. Stop violating the Constitution: that’s a suggestion.