Appellate court to hold docket at 2025 Missouri Girls State and Missouri Boys State

17 June 2025

ST. LOUIS – The Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, plans to convene court at 3 p.m. Monday, June 23, 2025, at Lindenwood University’s Scheidegger Center for the Arts, 2300 West Clay Street, in St. Charles, in conjunction with Missouri Girls State and Missouri Boys State. At the docket, attorneys will argue an appeal in front of approximately 1,000 students attending Missouri Girls State and Missouri Boys State. The court sessions are open to the public.

“The Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, is very pleased to conduct a case docket at Lindenwood University, which is hosting the talented young people participating in the worthwhile activities of Boys and Girls State,” Chief Judge Thomas C. Clark II said. “The judges and court personnel are very much looking forward to interacting with these over-achieving students coming from all corners of our state. We hope they find this a valuable experience while expanding their understanding of the court system, the appellate process and the rule of law.”

Three judges from the court of appeals will be participating: Clark, Judge James M. Dowd and Judge Michael E. Gardner. The judges will sit as a panel of three to hear oral arguments from attorneys involved in a criminal case appealed from the St. Louis County circuit court.

Clark was appointed to the court of appeals in 2021 after serving as a circuit judge, an associate circuit judge and an assistant circuit attorney in the city of St. Louis. Dowd was appointed in 2015 after practicing law in St. Louis at Dowd & Dowd and then at his own firm. Gardner was appointed to the court of appeals in 2020 after serving as a circuit judge for the 32nd Judicial Circuit (Bollinger, Cape Girardeau and Perry counties) for five years and in the private practice of law in Cape Girardeau.

Missouri Boys State is sponsored by the American Legion, and Missouri Girls State is sponsored by the American Legion Auxiliary. They exist to teach the fundamentals of citizenship, government and politics to high school juniors in the State of Missouri. Participants learn first-hand the innerworkings of the three branches of state government – the executive, the legislative and the judicial.

The Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, is the state’s largest appellate court, with offices in the historic Old Post Office in downtown St. Louis. There are 14 judges on the court, which regularly hears cases in St. Louis, Hannibal, Cape Girardeau and other locations in the Eastern District. 

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Contact: Morgan A. Coleman, clerk of the court

Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District

(314) 539-4300