Backers expected to appeal after Cole County ruling
A Cole County circuit judge ruled Wednesday that Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins properly blocked a constitutional amendment that would have shielded laws and constitutional amendments approved through Missouri’s citizen initiative process, leaving the proposal off the November ballot.
Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green upheld Hoskins’s earlier rejection of the measure, which came after the petition campaign submitted thousands of signatures in support. Under Missouri law, citizen initiatives qualify for the ballot when voters collect enough signatures, but the secretary of state can refuse measures deemed to violate the state constitution.
Hoskins, a Republican, asserted that the proposed amendment ran afoul of the constitution on two grounds: that it contained multiple subjects and that it restricted a republican form of government. The court found those grounds sufficient to keep the proposal from reaching voters.
Green’s decision is likely to be appealed. The ruling does not foreclose further court action before the November election.
The case was heard in Cole County Circuit Court in Jefferson City, the state capital. It tested the breadth of the secretary of state’s authority to screen proposed constitutional amendments before they appear on the ballot.
The petition drive had gathered thousands of signatures before Hoskins’s initial rejection. With Wednesday’s ruling, those signatures will not produce a voter decision this fall unless an appellate court reverses the lower court’s decision.