editorial policy of publishing one article in every issue that addressed an issue specific to Missouri. Houston showed him the Iowa law school's catalog, which touted the benefits of attending for a student interested in practicing law in Iowa. On cross-examination, Masterson claimed not to know details of the admissions process or the school's budget, and could not answer Houston's question as to whether or not Missouri's was the only public law school in the state. Other state and university officials took the stand, with both sides using their testimony to buttress their cases. Canada told Houston that to his knowledge black students were the only ones barred from the university on account of their race; the university's assistant secretary added later that the school not only admitted students from overseas but extended financial aid to them if necessary. Robert Witherspoon, an African-American lawyer who practiced in St. Louis, testified that having had to attend law school out of state had put him at a disadvantage. State Senator F.M. McDavid, chair of the state's Board of Regents, testified on direct examination that the admission of a black student would be very disruptive for the university and its students, undermining a hundred years of tradition. Houston asked on cross if he really believed that that tradition "could bind progress forever." McDavid also worried that it would be "very unhappy" for Gaines. But when Houston asked him also if he was aware of any problems caused by the admission of a black student at Maryland following that lawsuit, McDavid said he was not, as he had not researched the issue. Hogsett presented his case for the audience, some of whom nodded in sympathy with his arguments, while Houston concentrated on getting facts in the record for appeal, hopefully to the U.S. Supreme Court, the only venue where he expected and wanted to prevail. Two weeks later Dinwiddie held for the state, without writing an opinion. Gaines appealed to the Missouri Supreme Court. Appeals Missouri Supreme Court The state's highest court heard the arguments near the end of the year. While normally it sat in two divisions, the case was considered so important that all seven justices were present. Two months later, it upheld Judge Dinwiddie. In his opinion for a unanimous court, Justice William Francis Frank conceded that the state's constitution's provision requiring that its public schools be racially segregated did not