A recent Missouri law giving the attorney general the sole power to appeal preliminary injunctions in cases involving state law is unconstitutional, a judge ruled this week. Attorney General Catherine Hanaway plans to appeal.

A new law that gave Missouri’s attorney general the sole power to appeal preliminary injunctions is unconstitutional, a Cole County judge ruled Tuesday.

“Access to courts, including the right to appeal, is a fundamental right for the purposes of equal rights and opportunity under the law,” Circuit Judge Daniel Green wrote.

This law, he said, “impinges” on that right because it only grants authority to appeal a preliminary injunction in which a state or state official is involved, and then only to the attorney general.

“There is no compelling governmental interest

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