{"id":8542,"date":"2026-01-23T15:19:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T21:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/23\/missouri-supreme-court-strikes-down-law-on-ballot-title-cases-special-appeal-power-for-ag\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T15:19:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T21:19:00","slug":"missouri-supreme-court-strikes-down-law-on-ballot-title-cases-special-appeal-power-for-ag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/23\/missouri-supreme-court-strikes-down-law-on-ballot-title-cases-special-appeal-power-for-ag\/","title":{"rendered":"Missouri Supreme Court strikes down law on ballot title cases, special appeal power for AG"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"614\" src=\"https:\/\/missouriindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/ready-240910-RC-Amendment-3-13-1024x614.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The Missouri Supreme Court on Friday struck down a law giving special appeal power to the attorney general and revising how ballot summary cases are handled. The judges, shown in a September 2024 photo, are from left, Kelly C. Broniec, Robin Ransom, W. Brent Powell,  then-Chief Justice Mary R. Russell, Zel. M. Fischer, Paul C. Wilson and Ginger K. Gooch (Pool photo by Robert Cohen\/St. Louis Post-Dispatch).<\/p>\n<p><span>The Missouri Supreme Court on Friday threw out a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/missouriindependent.com\/2025\/04\/14\/missouri-lawmakers-approve-bill-targeting-pending-abortion-lawsuit\/\"><span>law passed last year<\/span><\/a><span> that was designed to keep politicians in control of writing ballot summaries and give the attorney general extraordinary appeal power.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The bill was changed too much during its path through the General Assembly, Chief Justice W. Brent Powell wrote in the unanimous opinion. The changes, he wrote, violated the Missouri Constitution\u2019s requirement that amendments should not change the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/revisor.mo.gov\/main\/OneSection.aspx?section=III++++21&amp;bid=31761&amp;constit=y\" target=\"_blank\"><span>original purpose<\/span><\/a><span> of legislation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.senate.mo.gov\/25info\/pdf-bill\/intro\/SB22.pdf\" target=\"_blank\"><span>original bill<\/span><\/a><span> contained one section intended to prevent the courts from rewriting ballot language for measures referred to voters by the General Assembly. By the time it was passed, it <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.senate.mo.gov\/25info\/pdf-bill\/tat\/SB22.pdf\" target=\"_blank\"><span>changed five sections of state law<\/span><\/a><span>, completely revising the process for court challenges to ballot suumaries and granting the attorney general authority to appeal preliminary injunctions preventing enforcement of state laws or regulations in any field.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/missouriindependent.com\/2026\/01\/07\/missouri-supreme-court-hears-case-over-ballot-title-lawsuits-ags-special-appeal-power\/\"><span>arguments on Jan.7<\/span><\/a><span>, Deputy Solicitor General Samuel Freedlund tried to convince the judges that changes to how ballot summary cases are managed are germane to the attorney general\u2019s appeal power because the bill, from the start, was designed to amend the process for judicial review of state laws.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThis argument stretches the boundaries of logic,\u201d Powell wrote.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The court considered allowing the changes to ballot title cases to remain in effect, which was the result when Cole County Circuit Judge Danel Green <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/missouriindependent.com\/2025\/09\/24\/judge-rules-unconstitutional-law-missouri-attorney-general-special-appeal-power\/\"><span>ruled in September.<\/span><\/a><span> Green found that the original purpose of the bill had not been improperly changed but there was no legal basis for allowing the attorney general\u2019s office to have special appeal power.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The Supreme Court considered whether the bill would have passed absent the provisions for the attorney general, Powell wrote.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cWhile it remains possible the General Assembly would have passed (the law) without the amendment\u2026this mere possibility is not enough for this court to save the non-offending provisions (the law),\u201d he wrote.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The decision restates what lawmakers should have known when they passed the bill because what is and is not allowed procedurally has been argued repeatedly in court, attorney Chuck Hatfield said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Hatfield represented Sean Nicholson, who sued in part because the new ballot summary process is more expensive and creates delays for ballot initiatives<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cEvery few years, the Supreme Court needs to remind the Legislature that they have to follow the procedural requirements of the Constitution when they pass a bill,\u201d Hatfield said. \u201cIt\u2019s not that hard. They need to vote on things separately.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The ballot summary provisions of the law were written to take revisions out of the hands of the courts. In lawsuits during 2023 and early 2024, the courts rewrote the language for the abortion rights initiative petition, finding the original version written by then-Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft \u201creplete with politically partisan language.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Instead of a judge making changes when summaries are deemed unfair or biased, the law gave the secretary of state three chances to make revisions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The law was used last year during a challenge to the summary of a proposal to reinstate Missouri\u2019s almost-total ban on abortions. Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green approved a summary from Secretary of State Denny Hoskins after <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/missouriindependent.com\/2025\/10\/07\/missouri-abortion-ban-amendment-ballot-language-2026\/\"><span>rejecting two previous versions<\/span><\/a><span>, but that decision was overturned at the Western District Court of Appeals, which <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/missouriindependent.com\/2025\/12\/04\/missouri-appeals-court-rejects-abortion-ban-ballot-language\/\"><span>issued its own revision<\/span><\/a><span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>By throwing out the law, the judges put revisions to a referendum on Missouri\u2019s gerrymandered redistricting plan into the hands of Cole County Circuit Judge Brian Stumpe. Hoskins has already <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/missouriindependent.com\/2026\/01\/09\/denny-hoskins-admits-writing-flawed-ballot-summary-for-missouri-gerrymandering-referendum\/\"><span>admitted in court<\/span><\/a><span> through his attorneys that the ballot summary \u201cis close to the line of being inherently argumentative.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In the effort to save the law, Freedlund during oral arguments asked the court to reject the lawsuit entirely. Nicholson is not working for any initiative campaign engaged in litigation over a ballot title and therefore had no injury, he contended.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>And there is no standing, or right to sue, for anyone to challenge the appeal power because it involved no new expense for the state, he argued.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The court did not address the first argument and rejected the second. While in many cases a challenge could not be sustained if the only expense is for state employees who would be paid a salary anyway, this case is different, Powell wrote.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Lawmakers added the appeal power to the bill specifically to allow the attorney general to challenge a preliminary injunction in the court battle <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/missouriindependent.com\/2026\/01\/19\/abortion-safety-missouri-amendment-trial-jackson-county\/\"><span>over abortion rights<\/span><\/a><span> playing out in Kansas City.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Planned Parenthood and the ACLU of Missouri are suing the state over laws and regulations that prevented Missourians from immediately accessing abortion following the passage of an <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/missouriindependent.com\/2024\/11\/05\/missouri-voters-overturn-states-near-total-abortion-ban\/\"><span>abortion rights amendment<\/span><\/a><span> in 2024.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Jackson County Judge Jerri Zhang found some of the regulations to be unconstitutional under the new abortion rights law and issued two preliminary injunctions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Immediately after the bill was signed, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/missouriindependent.com\/2025\/04\/25\/lawsuit-challenges-the-constitutionality-of-missouri-attorney-generals-new-powers\/\"><span>Bailey used the new authority<\/span><\/a><span> to file appeals that were ultimately unsuccessful. Those filings, Powell wrote, are a use of state funds that would not have been made absent the new legal authority.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cIn connection with the attorney general\u2019s appeal of a preliminary injunction filed after passage of (the law), tax dollars necessarily have been spent on the pursuit of that appeal when no appeal was previously allowed,\u201d Powell wrote. \u201cThis expenditure establishes taxpayer spending.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The decision helps clarify when a lawsuit challenging a new law or regulation can be filed, Hatfield said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThat\u2019s somewhat helpful,\u201d he said, \u201cto those of us who worry about this kind of thing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Missouri Supreme Court on Friday struck down a law giving special appeal power to the attorney general and revising how ballot summary cases are handled. The judges, shown in a September 2024 photo, are from left, Kelly C. Broniec, Robin Ransom, W. Brent Powell, then-Chief Justice Mary R. Russell, Zel. M. Fischer, Paul C&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Missouri Supreme Court strikes down law on ballot title cases, special appeal power for AG - WestplexNews.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/23\/missouri-supreme-court-strikes-down-law-on-ballot-title-cases-special-appeal-power-for-ag\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Missouri Supreme Court strikes down law on ballot title cases, special appeal power for AG - WestplexNews.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Missouri Supreme Court on Friday struck down a law giving special appeal power to the attorney general and revising how ballot summary cases are handled. 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