Red state court kills Republican law undermining ballot measures

The Missouri Supreme Court on Friday unanimously struck down a state law deployed by Republicans to tamper with or adjust ballot measures to mislead voters.

The Kansas City Star reports the law, which critics called the “Let Politicians Lie Act,” provided the Republican Missouri Secretary of State’s Office and the GOP Attorney General’s Office powers to meddle with the language of ballot measures with which they disagree. Over the last year, the law allowed Secretary of State Denny Hoskins two opportunities to rephrase ballot questions and summaries to potentially mislead the public over the intent of measures set for a vote in 2026.

The law also allowed former Attorney General Andrew Bailey to appeal a decision that restored women’s rights to healthcare access, despite Missouri voters legalizing that right in 2024.

Before the state’s conservative supreme court jettisoned it, the controversial law also severely restricted judges from repairing and clarifying misleading ballot questions. But the state’s highest court ruled that the law, SB 22, violated the Missouri Constitution’s requirement that lawmakers cannot amend bills to change the legislation’s original purpose.

In Missouri, as in other states, most legislative districts are heavily gerrymandered by incumbents to discourage the chances of election victory by incumbents’ opposition party. This being the case, the only alternative left for the passage of legislation that voters favor over the preferences of politically-insulated incumbents are ballot measures that voters and parties try to pass during state elections.

Ballot measures remain some of the most successful tactics for voters to pass liberal laws in a gerrymandered red states or conservative laws in blue states. Trump won Missouri’s 10 electoral votes by a remarkable 58.5 percent over Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. However, Missouri voters also passed a union-backed ballot initiative to increase the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by January 2026, over the outcry of the state’s Republican-dominated legislature. That same initiative also provided paid sick leave to workers of large employers, which Republican incumbents also overwhelmingly opposed.

Missouri attorney Chuck Hatfield, who sued to strike down SB 22, told The Star on Friday that hoped lawmakers learn from the court decision.

“This is a unanimous decision of the Missouri Supreme Court and I would think that the legislature should take note of that,” said Hatfield, who sued on behalf of Sean Soendker Nicholson, a Missouri activist. “This wasn’t a close call.”

Read the Kansas City Star report at this link.

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