Schmitt and Kobach: Twin sons of different mothers. Should Missouri AG be sanctioned?

Should Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt face official punishment for abusing the legal system?

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas thinks the answer is yes. In a tweet, Lucas suggested “sanctions” for Schmitt, accusing the attorney general of filing too many frivolous, politically motivated lawsuits.

“There is the buffoonery that was the China lawsuit,” Lucas said, along with Schmitt’s petition to stop Kansas City’s mask order, and Jackson County’s. Schmitt has also weighed in on Kansas City’s police dispute.

“He has entered Kris Kobach status in terms of just using the state as his personal political tool,” Lucas said, adding: “Secretary Kobach was legitimately crazy … Schmitt is actually doing all of this just for political gain.”

This is more than just a normal partisan spat. The attorney general’s repeated attempts to turn judges and the courts into wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Schmitt for Senate Committee could provoke a review of his conduct.

Which would be a welcome development.

We settle political disputes in the United States through the political process, not the courts. Or at least, that’s what Republicans used to believe.

Schmitt has made a mockery of that idea. His lawsuit against Kansas City contains pages of political criticism of the mayor’s decision, but very few legal reasons why a court should discard his now-defunct mask order.

The attorney general’s petition says the order was arbitrary and vague, and therefore unconstitutional. But cities issue broad public health orders, and enact proscriptive health ordinances, all the time. Kansas City’s ordinances forbid public urination and defecation, because they create “public health risks of the spread of contagious diseases.”

Perhaps AG Schmitt thinks using Kansas City’s streets as a restroom should be legal, too. You know, freedom.

But the real evidence of Schmitt’s actionable frivolity can be found in his decision to bypass emergency relief in the local masking cases. That means the lawsuits won’t be heard for months, while the COVID-19 crisis continues, and mutates.

Freedom, it seems, can wait until we’re closer to Election Day. “I just have not seen an attorney general in Missouri in my lifetime go to this level of extreme, to make cheap political points,” Lucas said.

Kansas City could countersue for attorney general’s emails

What, then, to do?

The city could file an abuse of process lawsuit against Schmitt. It would be fun to depose his staff about the real purposes behind the attorney general’s feverish litigiousness, and to pry open his emails too.

As Lucas hinted, though, a formal complaint with the Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel is also possible. The Missouri Supreme Court’s rule 4-3.1 says “a lawyer shall not bring or defend a proceeding … unless there is a basis in law and fact for doing so that is not frivolous.”

If such a complaint is filed, and is found to have merit, Schmitt would face a variety of sanctions, from a slap on the wrist to something more serious. The process itself would be important to watch.

It’s unlikely either approach would deter the attorney general. Anyone who believes it’s fine for kids to face COVID without masks probably isn’t worried about state-imposed penalties. But the public should see Schmitt for what he is before next year’s Senate election.

Let me be clear: The courts exist to protect rights. If an individual is genuinely aggrieved by a mask order, he or she should have access to a courtroom. Once there, a plaintiff can explain to a judge how he or she actually suffered an injury from a mask.

But Eric Schmitt shouldn’t be their lawyer. He is supposed to serve everyone, not just his own political ambition. It would be a good thing if someone would point that out.