A proposed constitutional amendment to reimpose campaign finance limits in Missouri will stay on the Nov. 8 election ballot, Cole County Presiding Circuit Judge Pat Joyce ruled Thursday.
In a six-page ruling issued just a day and a half after she held a hearing, Joyce said the issues raised by the plaintiffs must wait until after the election, because they did not present the kind of evidence needed to take the proposed amendment off the ballot before the election.
The petitions were circulated by the St. Louis-based group, Returning Government to the People.
In a news release, the group noted Joyce's ruling "completely rejects the meritless lawsuit filed by political insiders in a futile effort to keep Missourians from voting on RGP's Missouri Campaign Contribution Reform Initiative (MCCRI) in November."
The news release also noted more than 200,000 Missourians signed petitions to place the campaign finance proposal on the Nov. 8 ballot.
"The MCCRI will enact commonsense campaign-finance reform to fix Missouri's broken, corrupt system of unlimited campaign donations," RGP President Fred Sauer said in the news release. "The campaign contributions limitations of the MCCRI are closely modeled on federal campaign regulations and other state provisions, which the courts have repeatedly upheld."
But Jefferson City lawyer Chuck Hatfield, who represents the plaintiffs opposed to the ballot proposal, told the News Tribune Thursday afternoon: "The issues in this case are issues of law so they will need to be decided by the appellate courts one way or another.
"We appreciate the judge's prompt ruling so that we may move on to the next stage.
"My clients will appeal, and we believe the appellate court will agree that this measure is unconstitutional and cannot be placed on the November ballot."
The Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives, Legends Bank and former state Sen. David Klindt, as an individual taxpayer, challenged the ballot proposal as being unconstitutional because it violates free speech rights granted in both the Missouri and U.S. constitutions.
She said she could rule for the plaintiffs only if the alleged "constitutional violation in a proposed initiative is so obvious as to constitute a matter of form" - which they didn't prove in this case.
Additionally, she said, the proposed amendment's "prohibition on direct contributions to political action committees from state-chartered banks, utilities, and foreign corporations does not violate the First Amendment to the United States Constitution."
Joyce found "federal law imposes exactly the same restrictions on corporations and national banks as the Initiative Petition imposes on these entities."
Earlier coverage:
A proposed constitutional amendment to reimpose campaign finance limits in Missouri will stay on the Nov. 8 election ballot, Cole County Presiding Circuit Judge Pat Joyce ruled today.
In a six-page ruling issued a day and a half after she held a hearing, Joyce said the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives and the other plaintiffs did "not present a facial challenge to the Ballot Initiative, (so) it is not ripe for adjudication until after the Ballot Initiative is enacted by Missouri voters."
She said she could rule for the plaintiffs only if the alleged "constitutional violation in a proposed initiative is so obvious as to constitute a matter of form."
In this case, she said, the plaintiffs didn't make that case.