State of Missouri ex rel. Jennifer M. Joyce, Circuit Attorney for the City of St. Louis, Relator v. The Honorable Michael K. Mullen, Circuit Judge, Twenty-Second Judicial Circuit

LAWRENCE E. MOONEY, PRESIDING JUDGE

The Circuit Attorney filed petitions for writs of mandamus, disputing the trial court’s denial of her motions for protective order in fourteen underlying criminal cases. We issued preliminary orders and ordered the cases consolidated, briefed, and orally argued. Today, we quash the preliminary orders in part and make them permanent in part. We agree with the trial court’s conclusions that Missouri Supreme Court Rule 25.03 is constitutional and that the Circuit Attorney failed to prove that good cause existed for protective orders. But we disagree with the…