- The fine print
- RSMo 67.2300.5 (2022) banned unauthorized sleeping/camping on state-owned lands, but the Missouri Supreme Court struck down its enacting bill in Byrd v. State (Dec 2023); the Revisor page carries an 'all or part is unconstitutional' annotation and no re-enactment was found as of July 2026. No other statewide sleeping statute found. Local ordinances vary by city.
Parking overnight to sleep and camping are two different acts under most rules. Camping usually means setting up outside the vehicle: a tent, an awning, chairs, a fire. Staying inside a legally parked vehicle is often treated differently. Which one applies to you.
The posted sign and the officer on the ground beat this table. Rules change; the date above is when we last checked.
Missouri had a statewide ban on sleeping on state-owned land, and then it did not. The 2022 law, RSMo 67.2300.5, said “no person shall be permitted to use state-owned lands for unauthorized sleeping, camping, or the construction of long-term shelters.” The Missouri Supreme Court struck down its enacting bill in Byrd v. State in December 2023, and as of July 2026 nothing has replaced it. Today no statewide statute prohibits sleeping in a legally parked vehicle in Missouri.
The ban that came and went
The statute is worth knowing about because it still shows up in search results and older articles as if it were live. It is not. The Revisor of Statutes’ own page for 67.2300 carries the annotation “all or part is unconstitutional,” and we found no re-enactment when we checked on 2026-07-17. If a site tells you Missouri bans sleeping on public land statewide, it is citing a law that a court took off the board more than two years ago.
What that leaves
The same patchwork as most states: the city decides. Overnight parking and vehicle-occupancy rules in Missouri are municipal, they vary between St. Louis and the next town over, and this page does not guess at any of them. Private lots need the owner’s permission, and a posted sign where you park beats both the struck-down statute and this website.
How to check locally
Read the parking chapter of the city code where you plan to stop, or call the non-emergency line and ask about overnight parking. For rest areas, the honest answer is that MoDOT publishes no overnight rule we could verify, covered on the Missouri rest area page. For a night where the legality is not in question, free camping in Missouri covers the Mark Twain National Forest and the rest of the public-land options.