Opinion -- ACLU Sues Alleging Misleading Ballot Language on Abortion Ban Measure

By the ACLU of Missouri

The ACLU of Missouri and Stinson LLP filed a lawsuit against Secretary of State Denny Hoskins for certifying an intentionally misleading and inaccurate summary statement and fair ballot language for a measure that would overturn the recent voter-passed constitutional protections for reproductive freedom.

The ballot measure was placed on the ballot by the legislature in the form of House Joint Resolution 73 but will appear on the ballot as Amendment 3. Amendment 3 fails to inform voters that, if passed, will eliminate the fundamental right to reproductive freedom; abolish explicit constitutional protections for prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, birth control, and respectful birthing conditions; and would overturn protections against prosecution for physicians related to pregnancy outcomes.

“Less than six months after we voted to end Missouri’s abortion ban and protect reproductive freedom, politicians chose to ignore the will of the people so they can reinstate their ban on abortion,” said Tori Schafer, Director of Policy and Campaigns at the ACLU of Missouri. “Amendment 3, passed as HJR 73, is a copy and paste bill from special interest groups that will abolish our constitutional right to reproductive freedom, including access to abortion care.”

In addition to the misleading and inaccurate summary statement, Amendment 3 violates the state’s single subject clause for ballot measures that will amend the Constitution. Specifically, Amendment 3 erroneously categorizes several topics to fall under the definition of “reproductive health care,” including banning health care for transgender adolescents, arbitrarily forcing all legal actions “relating to reproductive health care” to be heard in Cole County Circuit Court, and creating a notification system for the Attorney General on all private and non-state involved lawsuits questioning the constitutionality of state statutes.

The lawsuit asks the court to declare Amendment 3’s summary statement and fair ballot language unfair and insufficient and to certify a new, compliant summary statement for voters, or to declare Amendment 3 in violation of the state Constitution and deny it from being placed on any ballot.

Jasper Logan Files for 1st District Representative

Burlington Junction Businessman Jasper Logan, a Republican, filed to run for State Representative on Tuesday at the James C. Kirkpatrick State Information Center in Jefferson City.

Logan, who announced his candidacy last June, is seeking the Republican Party’s nomination to represent State House District 1 in the General Assembly. As a result of redistricting changes completed in January, House District 1 includes the entirety of Atchison, Gentry, Holt and Nodaway counties in Northwest Missouri. Worth and Harrison counties will be in District 2.

“I’m excited to meet more voters across all four counties in the coming months, and get to know what matters to you,” Logan said. “Many of the folks I’ve met across Northwest Missouri share my Conservative values. We’re ready to end the mandates for good and get back to normal. We want a Representative who will fix our education system and get rid of the Critical Race Theory indoctrination in the classroom, we want secure elections, and we need someone who will stand up for the Second Amendment and the lives of the unborn. That’s me. I’m ready to get to work and Keep Missouri Great.”

Logan owns and operates two e-commerce businesses and has been involved in Republican Party politics for several years. In addition to serving as President of the College Republicans chapter at Northwest Missouri State University, Logan worked for several campaigns and previously served as Director of Northwest Missouri Conservatives, which successfully campaigned to pass Constitutional Amendment 3 in 2020. 

Amendment 3, which is now in the Missouri Constitution, requires that existing communities be kept together whenever possible in redistricting, and creates a bipartisan commission of ten Republicans and ten Democrats to draw the new state legislative maps, rather than a single person appointed by the Democratic State Auditor. 

Logan says that if Amendment 3 had not passed, rural communities may have been split up and stretched into districts with Democratic-leaning urban areas. 

“In 2020, I led the fight to protect our rural representation from out-of-state liberal interest groups,” Logan said. “As your State Representative, you can count on me to continue standing up for our Northwest Missouri communities every day.”

The primary election will take place on August 2nd. Incumbent Rep. Allen Andrews (R - Grant City) is ineligible to seek re-election due to term limits. As the result of a random drawing, Logan’s name will appear first on the ballot. More information about Jasper Logan can be found at his website, www.jasper.gop.

Opinion -- Amendment Three will Finally Expand Early Childhood Education

by Raise Your Hand for Kids

The Early Childhood Health and Education Amendment, an initiative to finally expand early childhood education in the Show-Me State, has officially qualified for the November 8 ballot. The measure was certified August 9th by the Office of the Secretary of State. It will be Amendment 3 when voters go in to their polling booths. The certification occurs after more than 200,000 Missourians signed petitions backing the historic effort. And today’s news follows new polling showing overwhelming public support for the Amendment. A survey of state voters found that the measure is backed by a roughly 2-1 margin, and 80% of voters, no matter where they stood on the Amendment specifically, oppose any and all efforts by cheap cigarette companies to use legal maneuvering to attempt to block November’s vote.

As the Amendment was officially certified for the ballot, a number of community leaders from across the state gathered in St. Louis today to voice their support of this effort to provide real educational opportunities to Missouri’s young people and families. Among those in attendance at the Soulard School, a provider of both early-childhood and elementary education in the City, were State Senator Jamilah Nasheed; Maxine Clark, Founder of Build-a-Bear Workshop; Sarah Christman, Executive Director of the Soulard School; Reverend Starsky Wilson, Co-Chair of the Ferguson Commission and head of the Deaconess Foundation; and Jane Dueker with Raise Your Hand for Kids.

Speaking about the Amendment, longtime education advocate Maxine Clark remarked, “This is our opportunity, Missouri. This is our chance, finally, to expand early childhood education access all across our state. In 2014 only 3% of Missouri 4-year-olds attended state-funded Pre-K. In Iowa that figure was 60%. In Oklahoma it was 76%. That is stunning. It is a real and longstanding education gap that hurts our students, our families, our businesses, and our communities. With Amendment 3, we finally have the opportunity to address this challenge head on, and make our state stronger and better prepared for the future.”

State Senator Jamilah Nasheed noted, “We know that if we want to reduce crime and help our young people fulfill their true potential, it all starts with ensuring they get the educational opportunities they need and deserve. Missouri has fallen short of this goal. That’s no secret. We spend just $37 million a year on early childhood education, and that is unconscionable. But now, we have our chance to fix this and to stand up for Missouri’s present and future by voting yes on Amendment 3 this November. This vote will be an investment in our greatest resource: our children.”

Reverend Starsky Wilson added, “The research is clear: when our children gain access to early childhood education opportunities, they gain access to their future. Early childhood education has been proven to help reduce crime and make our communities safer. It builds stronger citizens and attracts new employers who want to hire workers who are educated, trained, and ready for the good-paying jobs of tomorrow. Voting yes on Amendment 3 is how we will make Missouri stronger and safer.”

Finally, Jane Dueker with Raise Your Hand for Kids concluded, “It’s time we provided a true funding stream for early childhood education in our state: money that the politicians can’t touch or divert, money that goes right to where our children learn. When Amendment 3 passes we will be able to hire new teachers, open new classrooms and provide 21st century teaching tools for Missouri children in every community from Joplin to St. Louis, Kansas City to Kirksville. That’s why we’ve done this as a constitutional amendment. So we can all vote yes for Missouri’s children and know the money is going exactly where we want it to go: because it is safeguarded by law. This is our moment to catch Missouri up to the rest of the country, and save significant taxpayer dollars in the future by making a smart investment today.”

Investing in early childhood education is a proven way to reduce crime, grow the economy and save taxpayer dollars. Amendment 3 will establish a secure and untouchable source of funding by simply raising Missouri’s lowest-in-the-nation cigarette tax to a level that is still one of the lowest in the nation, and putting that money, $300 million per year once the measure is fully phased in by 2020, in a constitutionally-protected lockbox that ensures it goes to early childhood education. The Amendment is supported by a broad coalition of respected groups from all areas of the state, including the Missouri School Boards’ Association, Missouri State NAACP, the Missouri Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators, the Missouri PTA, Parents as Teachers, Mosaic Life Care, SSM Health Care and many others.

Opinion: Amendment 3 Is Loaded With Benefits For Big Tobacco, Harms Missouri Public K-12 Education, Health, Medical Research

We Deserve Better released a comprehensive analysis Tuesday that clearly shows Big Tobacco will be the big winner of the flawed Amendment 3 tax increase scheme, while public K-12 schools, health, patients and medical research in Missouri will lose big.

We Deserve Better did a line-by-line analysis, titled “Big Tobacco Tax Initiative: What It Says, What It Does,” that allows voters to see for themselves what Amendment 3 actually says, along with an accompanying explanation of what the language that would become permanently enshrined in our state constitution really does. A link to the analysis is available at the end of this press release.

“It’s important for Missourians to get the real facts about what this flawed constitutional tax increase would do if voters were to pass it in November,” said Bradley Ketcher, deputy treasurer of We Deserve Better, a political action committee. “Amendment 3 is loaded with benefits for Big Tobacco, including banning the funding of research into the harmful effects of smoking and banning public advocacy for stricter tobacco laws. It creates a huge new bureaucracy in Missouri, and it allows a raid on public school funds by a panel of unelected bureaucrats. It has unacceptable long-term implications for patients and medical research – the list goes on and on and on.”

Among highlights of the 7-page analysis, Amendment 3 would:

• Undo Missouri’s century-old constitutional ban on giving public money to religious and private schools.
• Ban funding of research on the harmful effects of tobacco smoke, including its impact on young children.
• Forbid people or groups that receive funding from advocating for further controls on tobacco products. In short, it would silence Missouri Department of Health and local public health officials on tobacco policy.
• Put control of some state and local policy decision in the hands of the federal government.
• Rename a state bureaucracy for no apparent reason, creating high costs for signs, logos, stationary, webpages, business cards, trinkets etc.
• Undermines the 2006-voter approved Stem Cell Research and Cures Constitutional Amendment and narrows its protections.

North Carolina-based RAI Services, the parent company of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, maker of Camel, Pall-Mall and Newport cigarettes, has already spent and pledged more than $8 million to change Missouri’s constitution with Amendment 3, slated for the November statewide ballot. Big Tobacco has provided more than 90 percent of the financial backing to date to support the amendment.

“It’s clear that North Carolina-based Big Tobacco seeks to amend the Missouri Constitution to benefit itself. Early childhood education supporters and Missouri citizens are just pawns in their game,” Ketcher said. “We encourage voters to read the analysis.”

Public education, health, medical research and patient groups are among those opposing Amendment 3. These groups have equally diverse concerns, ranging from the funding and drafting of the measure by Big Tobacco to the impact on public K-12 education, health, as well as medical research and treatments in our state.

In addition to We Deserve Better, those publicly opposing the initiative are: American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Heart Association, American Lung Association in Missouri, BioSTL, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Concerned Women for America of Missouri, Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City, Missouri Alliance for Freedom, Missouri Association of Rural Education, Missouri Biotechnology Association, Missouri Cures, Missouri National Education Association, Missouri Retired Teachers Association, Stowers Institute for Medical Research, Tobacco-Free Missouri, United for Missouri and Washington University in St. Louis.

Committee of former judges opposes Amendment 3

(Missouri Digital News) -- A group of former state Supreme Court judges spoke out Thursday, Aug. 23, against a ballot measure that would change the selection process for Missouri's top judges.

The amendment, approved by state lawmakers during the last legislative session, would give the governor the power to appoint a majority of the commission members tasked with selecting nominees for non-partisan judgeships.

Retired Supreme Court Justice William Ray Price said supporters of the amendment are attempting to "concentrate power" in the executive branch, in order to buy judicial appointments.

"What they really are trying to do is concentrate power in one political office that they can affect by big money contributions. They aught to be honest and say that's what's going on. They want to be able to buy judicial appointments like they try and buy everything else in Jefferson City," he said.

Sen. Jim Lembke, R-Saint Louis County, who sponsored the amendment, said it will give the executive branch the power to properly check the judicial branch.

"This idea that the current system is not political is a fallacy. It is political, except it's just controlled by a very small group of Missourians," Lembke said.