City Union Mission, Inc. v. Mike Sharp, No. 20-3435 (8th Cir. 2022)
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City Union Mission is a Kansas City, Missouri nonprofit organization located near Margaret Kemp Park that provides food, shelter, employment, and a Christian discipleship program to poor and homeless individuals. A Missouri law prohibits persons convicted of certain sex offenses (Affected Persons) from being present in or loitering within 500 feet of any public park containing playground equipment. After the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office informed City Union Mission that the statute prohibited some of its guests from being present within 500 feet of the park, even when receiving City Union Mission’s charitable services, City Union Mission filed suit, bringing 12 claims against the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, Jackson County, and the Sheriff in his official capacity (collectively, the County), as well as one claim against the Sheriff in his individual capacity. The State of Missouri (the State) intervened, and the district court dismissed City Union Mission’s 12 claims against the County and granted summary judgment on City Union Mission’s claim against Sheriff Sharp in his individual capacity, finding that Sheriff Sharp was entitled to qualified immunity.
The Eighth Circuit affirmed and concluded that City Union Mission’s claims seeking broad injunctive relief prohibiting Sheriff Sharp and Jackson County from “enforcing or threatening to enforce” Section 566.150 against City Union Mission or Affected Persons are moot. Further, City Union Mission did not direct the court to any case that clearly establishes its constitutional right to provide services to Affected Persons within 500 feet of a park with playground equipment.
Court Description: [Shepherd, Author, with Wollman and Kobes, Circuit Judges] Civil case - Civil rights. The plaintiff, a group which runs a homeless shelter and provides other services for needy persons, including convicted sex offenders, was notified by the local sheriff's office that under Missouri law persons convicted of certain sex offenses could not be present at its facility because it was within 500 feet of a public park containing playground equipment and because those persons were loitering within the meaning of the statute; the plaintiff sued the sheriff, the sheriff's office and the county alleging First Amendment, Equal Protection, Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act and other claims and seeking injunctive relief and a declaratory judgment that the Missouri statute - Mo. Rev. Stat. Sec. 566.150 - was unconstitutional. The plaintiff's claims seeking broad injunctive relief prohibiting Sheriff Sharp and the County from enforcing the law are moot because the Sheriff has resigned and the County took the position at oral argument that it will not revive or otherwise enforce the Sheriff's position regarding the plaintiff's provision of services within 500 feet of the park; further, the County, the Sheriff's department, the City and the State of Missouri all concede that persons using the plaintiff's services are not loitering, thereby rendering the statute inapplicable; the district court did not err in dismissing all of plaintiff's claims against the county; with respect to the count against Sheriff Sharp, he was entitled to qualified immunity as plaintiff's right to provide services to certain sex offenders within 500 feet of a park with playground equipment was not clearly established at the time of the Sheriff's action. Judge Kobes, concurring in part and concurring in the judgment.
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