After a Conservative Challenge, a Judge Stops Low-income St. Louis Families From Getting $500 a Month in Basic Income Checks
A judge agreed with conservatives who sued and said the basic income scheme was “unconstitutional.” This means that payments to people in St. Louis who are poor will have to be put on hold.
Two city residents, Greg Tumlin and Frank Hale, sued the city in June, saying they didn’t agree with a plan to give $500 a month to 540 low-income families.
The lawsuit uses a part of the state’s constitution that says no cities, towns, or political groups can give “public money or property to any private individual.”
A news site that covers local and state politics, The Center Square, says that on Friday, St. Louis Circuit Court Judge Joseph Whyte told the program it couldn’t send funds for at least 15 days. The news source said that the city planned to put about $220,000 into the accounts of the winners before the block.
The state attorney general also sued to question the constitutionality of a similar program in Houston in April, and the Texas Supreme Court stopped it.
That case was filed because Republican state Sen. Paul Bettencourt asked for it. In a message to the office of the attorney general, Bettencourt said that the Texas constitution says that lawmakers can’t give any county the power to give someone public money to help them.
Business Insider spoke with Tumlin before, and he said that the St. Louis program is unconstitutional because the city can’t give people cash if they haven’t “performed a service for the city or sold any goods” that the city should pay for.
The Center Square says that Whyte wrote in his filing that the payments would lead to “immediate and irreparable injury, loss or damage” that “would be nearly impossible to recover” after they were given out.
“In addition, the court finds that there is a strong public interest in temporarily halting the distribution of funds until this court can determine whether ordinance No. 71591 violates the Missouri Constitution or the St. Louis City Charter,” Whyte said.
The outlet was told by lawyers for Tumlin and Hale that the ban was “another good day for the taxpayers.”
“We must uphold constitutional norms or the city will fail,” W. Bevis Schock, an attorney, told the news source.
Business Insider asked St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones for a comment on Sunday, but she didn’t get back to us right away. Jones told Center Square that the city would do what the judge said and keep looking into its legal choices at the same time.