Citizens in Charge

Tuesday the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, issued an opinion on the Missouri Municipal League’s (MML) challenge to the summaries that appear on petitions and the ballot for two eminent domain petitions. The court ruled exactly as the proponents of the petition, Missouri Citizens for Property Rights (MO-CPR), suggested in their court brief, affirming in part and reversing in part, the circuit court ruling.

The court ordered the Secretary of State to certify ballot titles which will allow signature collecting on the two petitions after a full year of court delays. The opinion came just 21 days after the oral arguments - much sooner than the appeals court typically issues opinions.

The court’s decision came on the heels of fresh allegations of misconduct by MML. In an audio recording of a meeting of the Missouri Bar’s eminent domain committee, a managing partner for the law firm representing MML stated that their main purpose in bringing the suit was to delay the collecting of signatures (you can listen here, the statements in question come about 4 min and 20 sec into the recording). Missouri law and Supreme Court rules prohibit using the legal system for the purpose of causing delay or unwarranted expense to opposing litigants, and provides for the awarding of damages to injured parties.

On December 14th, MO-CPR served MML with a motion for monetary sanctions to help make up for the additional expenses that will result from a diminished time frame to collect the hundreds of thousands of required signatures. MML has 30 days to respond to the motion before the court gets involved and decides whether or not to order sanctions.

Bruce Hillis, a member of the MO-CPR board explained their frustration, “Although we respect the right of a citizen to challenge an unfair ballot title, it’s just not right to use the courts to thwart the people’s right to vote on a public policy measure. In Article III, section 49 of the Missouri Constitution, the people reserved for themselves the right to use the petition process. We think MML has been maliciously trampling upon the most basic rights of Missouri voters.”

MO-CPR has also filed a complaint with the Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel (OCDC), the agency of the Missouri Supreme Court responsible for investigating allegations of misconduct by lawyers where a lawyer’s misconduct poses a threat to the public or to the integrity of the legal profession.

Missouri has been the site of a heated battle over petitioning and First Amendment rights in recent months. Just last month national public outcry arose when a St. Louis man was arrested for putting political leaflets on his neighbor’s car’s. Officers on the scene even threatened to take his children away, just for his political activism.

The petty blocking and delaying has consumed most of the limited time the law allows to collect signatures, leaving only 4 months and greatly increasing the cost of the project.

As this petition drive gets underway, efforts to expand Missouri’s initiative rights and protect future initiative proponents from delays and harassment will continue.

Ron Calzone is Citizens in Charge Foundation’s Missouri Citizen State Coordinator, and the Chairman of Missouri Citizens for Property Rights. Citizens in Charge Foundation does not take a position on particular initiatives, including those mentioned in this article.