Missouri Sunshine Law

[3] The law gained attention during the 2020 COVID pandemic, when it was used to reveal personal information about people who reported alleged lockdown breaches.

In the same article, Chris McDonald (the author), explains how in another investigation he had to wait 60 day to receive documents from a Sunshine requests (20 times the delivery goal set in the statute).

[21] In a 2021 interview with The Joplin Globe, Jean Maneke, a consulting attorney for the Missouri Press Association called the cost of access "the No.

1 obstacle to the public" in accessing the files made public through the law, saying "when a requester cannot specifically identify what record is sought, it hinders fast location of that record, which drives up the 'search' portion of the cost.

"[22] There have been attempts to raise the cost of access for getting and searching for documents through sunshine requests.