During his short tenureÌýas Missouri's top legal official,ÌýAttorney General Andrew BaileyÌýhas consistently used and abused his office to promote an extremist right-wing agenda with a brazenness unheard of even in Missouri politics.
Bailey, a Republican, was appointed to fill a vacancy in January 2023. He was elected to a full elected term on Nov. 5, 2024.
He has repeatedly forced the taxpayers to fund headline-grabbing partisan litigation of questionable (or non-existent) legal validity, while failing in numerous ways to carry out his actual responsibilities as Missouri's lawyer.
In the interest of keeping the public informed about this uniquely problematic public official, theÌýPost-Dispatch Editorial Board in early 2024Ìýlaunched this standing summaryÌýof Bailey's more outrageous ideological stunts, conflicts of interest and abrogations of duty. We have dubbed itÌýTheÌýBailey Tally.Ìý
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One tall latte, with extra race-baiting
On Feb. 12, 2025, Bailey filed a race-baiting lawsuit in which he claims that Starbucks' efforts toward diversity in its workforce discriminates against straight white male job applicants, while denying Starbucks customers competent service. The suit didn't specify a single straight white male who was denied employment, nor a single customer who claimed substandard service based on Starbucks' workforce diversity.
The day after filing the suit, Bailey appeared before the Missouri House Budget Committee to ask for $2 million in additional funding next year. State Rep. Raychel Proudie, D-Ferguson, noted the lawsuit in discussing how Bailey is spending the money he already has: “I’m curious if white-served coffee tastes better.â€
Forcing teen rape victims to give birth — for Missouri's budget
In a lawsuit against the Biden administration, Bailey and his fellow right-wing attorneys general in Kansas and IdahoÌýÌýfor cracking down on the availability of abortion drugs. Among their arguments:ÌýForcing teenaged rape victims to give birth against their will is a good way to boost Missouri’s population and thus help the state's fiscal outlook.
Missouri currently bans virtually all abortions, including for teenage rape victims. However, Bailey and his co-plaintiffs argue, “Younger women" are side-stepping the ban with "mail-order medication to self-manage abortions.â€
The result, they warn, could be the lowering of “expected birth ratesÌýfor teenaged mothers†(emphasis added)Ìý— with “a loss of potential population†that causes “diminishment of political representation†and “loss of federal funds.â€
Keeping exonerated prisoners locked up in defiance of court orders
In at least two instances in mid-2024, Bailey's office took the extraordinary step of telling Missouri Department of Corrections officials to ignore court orders that had been issued releasing inmates based on judges' findings of actual innocence.
, 64, spent 43 years in prison before her murder conviction was overturned in June — then spent another month incarcerated as Bailey’s office launched an ultimately fruitless fight to keep her locked up. The judge in the case scolded Bailey’s office for calling the Chillicothe Correctional Center and telling officials there to ignore his order releasing Hemme. She was finally released after the judge threatened a prison warden with contempt of court.
In July, Bailey's office similarly told corrections officials to ignore a judicial release order for Christopher Dunn, 52, who had spent 33 years in prison for a murder that a judge determined he didn't commit. Dunn was finally released a week later.
Cravenly inserting Missouri into Trump's New York criminal case
Bailey — who often seems to not grasp that he works for the people of Missouri, not former President Donald Trump's MAGA movement —Ìýsued the state of New YorkÌýin June for daring to criminally convict TrumpÌýon 34 felony counts related to falsification of business records.Ìý
In announcing the suit on (where else?) X, Bailey called Trump's conviction a "direct attack on our democratic process through unconstitutional lawfare."
In other words, he saw a national political firefight that had nothing to do with Missouri and thought:ÌýHow can I get in on this?Ìý
In early August, the U.S. Supreme Court summarilyÌýÌýBailey's tax-funded campaign stunt.
Defending slander on the taxpayers' dime
In May 2024, Bailey announced his office would provide the legal defense for hard-right Missouri state Sens. Rick Brattin, Denny Hoskins and Nick Schroer, who were beingÌýsued for defamationÌýby Denton Loudermill in federal court in Kansas.
The senators shared and commented upon social media posts falsely implicating the Kansas man as being involved in the Feb. 14 mass shooting during the Kansas City Chiefs' Super Bowl celebration. The senators' reposts also falsely claimed Loudermill was an illegal immigrant, using the issue to slam the Biden administration's immigration policies.Ìý
Bailey argued theÌýtrio enjoyed "absolute legislative immunity" for their slander. Even Gov. Mike Parson, a fellow Republican who appointed Bailey as attorney general last year, pushed back, saying: “We’re just not going to attack citizens, in Missouri or anywhere else, just because we think we have the power to do such."
A federal judge dismissed Loudermill's suit in October, saying it should have been filed in Missouri instead of Kansas.
The race-baiting politicization of a tragic student fight
In March 2024, Bailey inserted his office into a tragic incident in which 16-year-old Kaylee Gain was critically injured by another girl in a horrificÌýafter-school fightÌýnear Hazelwood East High School that was captured on video.
Though Kaylee is white and her attacker as seen on the video is Black, it’s not at all clear that race was a factor. Yet Bailey announced an "investigation" into the school’s focus on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policiesÌý— a favorite right-wing target with racist undertones.Ìý
Bailey's letter to the school district informing it of the investigation (which, as usual, was touted to the press at the same time) didn't even bother getting the basic facts correct; it cited an inaccurate date of the fight and falsely claimed it happened on school grounds during school hours.
A lawyer for the school district responded with aÌýÌýaptly calling Bailey out for “opening an investigation based on lies ... that only serve to rile your base."
Attacking the free press on orders from Elon Musk
In November 2023, Bailey vowed to insert his office into a spat betweenÌýElon Musk, owner of X (formerly Twitter), and the liberal national media watchdog group Media Matters, which exposed how the platform sometimes placed ads from major companies next to antisemitic tweets.
When Musk and others suggested that the expose’ constituted criminal fraud, Bailey obediently tweeted: “My team is looking into this matter.â€
Bailey followed through in March 2024 with aÌýÌýagainst Media Matters for its commentary. The suit declares (without an ounce of irony) that Twitter is "one of the last platforms dedicated to free speech in America."
In August 2024, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction against Bailey, finding his actions showed "direct evidence of retaliatory intent" in violation of the First Amendment.
Siding with a convicted cop against a dead Black victim
In June 2023, Bailey’s office filed a highly unusual motion attempting toÌýoverturn the convictionÌýof a white Kansas City police officer who’d been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of a Black man in his own driveway. The motion cited no new evidence, but essentially just second-guessed the prosecution's case.Ìý
The motion — from an attorney general's office that normally is tasked withÌýsupportingÌýcriminal prosecutions on appeal — has been described as unprecedented, and infuriated local prosecutors who handled the case.
A real lawsuit over an imaginary girl
In February 2024, Bailey filed a remarkable suit against Planned Parenthood allegingÌý. It’s based on a staged, heavily edited hidden-video sting in which the widely discredited right-wing activist group Project Veritas appears to get a Planned Parenthood employee to tell a man where he can take a pregnant girl out of state to get an abortion without parental permission.
The girl referenced in the video doesn’t actually exist. And the only alleged help from the Planned Parenthood employee is to provide information about abortion services, which is protected by the First Amendment.
In a social-media post announcing the suit, Bailey made clear the point, calling it "the culmination of a multi-year campaign to drive Planned Parenthood from the State of Missouri."
Fanning the flames of hate in doxxing case
Bailey jumped into the culture-war fray as usual after Kansas City Chiefs placekicker Harrison Butker was tweaked on social media for a controversial speech calling for women to stay at home rather than work.
The speech prompted an irresponsible tweet from someone on Kansas City’s official municipal X account, referencing the suburb where Butker lives. It was inexcusable but wasn’t true “doxxing†— it didn’t reveal personal information such as Butker’s street address. Bailey nonethelessÌýannounced a probe against the cityÌýfor violating Butker’s religious rights.Ìý
Yet Bailey showed no interest in standing up for a Missourian who actuallyÌýwasÌýdoxxed: a Black female Kansas City employee who was wrongly accused of being the source of the original tweet against Butker by a hyper-conservative news channel, which posted her photo and identifying information.Ìý
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas tweeted that Black female city employees who had nothing to do with the original tweet were being harassed, to the point that one had to leave home.
“The growing online rhetoric on this issue, for which you are fanning the flames, has made City employees targets for online hate mobs and put their personal safety at risk," Lucas wrote in a direct appeal to Bailey to lower the temperature of the debate. Needless to say, he didn't.Ìý Ìý
Punting on Christian boarding school abuse
Activists have implored Bailey to use the prominence of his office to highlight alleged physical and sexual abuse of kids atÌýChristian boarding schoolsÌý— a historic problem in Missouri's under-regulated private school system and one that critics say is still happening under the radar.
Bailey's office responded with a generic public statement saying his office doesn't have jurisdiction to unilaterally investigate.
This from an attorney general who has improperly inserted his office into issues ranging from Donald Trump's criminal conviction to Elon Musk's spat with a liberal media watchdog group.Ìý
In fact, even as his office punted on the boarding-school issue, Bailey took to () Fox News that week to tout his crackdown on businesses that hire illegal immigrants, saying he will "fill the vacuum created by the federal government’s ineptitude" on immigration.
Public enemy No. 1: Underpaid teachers trying to do their jobs
In the first two months of 2024, Bailey twice made legal threats against the Webster Groves school district over separate issues that are of questionable importance — but likely to appeal to right-wing culture warriors.Ìý
In late January, he sent a cease-and-desist letter to the district alleging it was teachingÌýsex-education curriculumÌýwithout providing the required opt-out opportunity for parents.
In February, he sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Webster Groves school district alleging that its general goal of hiring a moreÌýracially diverse teaching staffÌýto reflect the diversity of its students is “discriminating on the basis of race in direct violation of both state and federal law.â€
Making life harder for trans Missourians is always good politics
in 2023, Bailey created an emergency rule to effectivelyÌýÌýnot just for kids but alsoÌýfor adults. He withdrew it only after even his fellow Republicans deemed it too extreme.
Continuing his obsession with making life harder for trans people, Bailey joined other Republican attorneys general to challenge a proposed federal rule that would require states to ensure thatÌýfoster parentsÌýwho want to take in kids with sexual identity issues agree to relevant training and to respect the child’s preferred pronouns.
The challenge argued that would constitute infringement on foster families’ freedom of religion and speechÌý— effectively seeking to turn abused kids into ideological fodder for the culture wars.
Threatening a mayor overÌýlegalÌýimmigration
In April 2024, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas publicly invitedÌýlegalÌýmigrants, withÌýlegalÌýwork permits, to come to work in his city, which was experiencing a building boom and labor shortage. Bailey, in a made-for-Fox News stunt, responded with aÌýthreatening letterÌýto Lucas laced with dubious legal reasoning, partisan disinformation and a whiff of xenophobia.
Bailey's letter (which he dutifully shared withÌý) threatened unspecified “legal action†over Lucas' comments. It quotes from statutes that make it illegal to transport undocumented migrants into Missouri or to employ them.
The letter acknowledges Lucas’ specification that he was talking about migrants who are “lawfully present, with lawful work permits.†But Bailey then dismisses that element as irrelevant because the federal government’s “open border programs are themselves illegal.â€
In calling for the hiring of migrants with federally approved work permits, Bailey alleges, "you are actively encouraging Missouri businesses to become entangled in a fundamentally unlawful program."
“Fundamentally unlawful†as decreed not by Congress or the courts, mind you, but by one appointed official in one Midwestern state.
Some creative math to undermine voters' rights
In a brazen attempt to stall efforts to put an abortion rights referendum on the statewide ballot, Bailey in 2023 refused to sign off on the state auditor's modest official cost estimate of the measure, as he is required to do by law. Instead, he claimed it would cost the stateÌýbillionsÌýof dollarsÌýin lost tax revenue from unborn MissouriansÌý— a claim that created a long delay in getting the referendum approved for the ballot.
The Missouri Supreme Court unanimously threw out the case in a scathing finding that BaileyÌýÌýto even weigh on the question: “The Attorney General’s refusal to perform the plain, unequivocal, and ministerial duty ... cannot be justified.â€
Bailey's bizarre up-is-down argument on gun safety
Bailey filed suit attempting toÌýÌýby claiming fewer guns on the streets would cost Missouri hundreds of millions of dollars in “increased crime costs.â€
There is no reliable data backing that argument — though states with loose gun laws like Missouri’s generallyÌýdoÌýhave significantly higher gun death rates than states like Illinois, that have stronger gun laws.
Gamblers, polluters, pot growers and other generous supporters
•ÌýAs Missouri debates how to confront an unlicensed video gambling industry so brazen that it sued to prevent the Missouri Highway Patrol from seizing the illegal machines, Bailey has refused to take any action at all.
In fact, he wouldn’t even use his own office to defend the lawsuit — the very definition of his official duty — insteadÌýcontracting it outÌýto a private firm at the taxpayers’ expense. Bailey’s campaign has accepted more than $25,000 in donations from that unregulated industry or its lobbyists.
•ÌýA PAC supporting Bailey accepted a $50,000 campaign contribution from a New York-based LLC in September 2023. Just two months earlier, Bailey had filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the LLC’s Missouri-based subsidiary in an environmental lawsuit stemming from theÌýlead poisoning of childrenÌýin Peru.Ìý
•ÌýThe co-owner of a marijuana company that was in the midst of a legal battle with state regulators — with Bailey’s office representing the state in that legal fight — hosted aÌýpolitical fundraiserÌýin his Ladue home in support of Bailey.
