(The Center Square) – A judge ordered the City of St. Louis to stop its guaranteed basic income program, possibly marking the first time a court granted an injunction to stop payments.
St. Louis Circuit Court Judge Joseph Whyte ordered St. Louis Comptroller Darlene Green, Treasurer Adam Layne and Mayor Tishaura Jones to immediately stop making any deposits to financial institutions for funding the project, except for administrative costs, and stop all payments to private individuals under the program.
“Insufficient evidence and argument was presented from which the court can find the necessary probability of success on the merits, threat of irreparable harm, the balance between harm and injury, and the public interest regarding these funds,” Whyte wrote in a 13-page order.
Bevis Schock, an attorney representing the taxpayers, said professors from Washington University’s Brown School of Social Work testified during the hearing along with two recipients and Judge Whyte ignored most of the testimony when he wrote the order.
“Interestingly, the professor has a contract with the city to study this,” Schock said in an interview with The Center Square. “So he was a witness and we exposed that bias. Of course he’s in favor of it. He’s paid to study it.”