Lawsuit alleges bill violated constitution

Ron Calzone wants the Cole County Circuit Court to throw out an education law the Legislature passed a year ago.

He argues lawmakers violated the Missouri Constitution when they expanded the bill from one issue to several.

The case, filed Tuesday, was assigned to Judge Jon Beetem. No hearings are scheduled.

Senate Bill 638 was introduced in the Missouri Senate on Jan. 6, 2016, as a three-page measure with a title saying it was "relating to civics education," Calzone argued.

Through the normal legislative process, the original bill was amended and changed, including a House amendment changing the title from "civics education" to "elementary and secondary education."

Ultimately, lawmakers adopted a compromise bill creating 29 new sections of state law.

Calzone's lawsuit said the final bill affected a dozen distinct elements, "most of which were not related to the original, controlling purpose of 'civics education.'"

A legislative summary said those provisions included civics education, dyslexia screening in schools, remedial education and personal plans of study, bonding requirements for school district officers, filling school board vacancies, requiring CPR instruction in high schools, mandating saying the pledge of allegiance in schools at least once each day, charter schools, a three-year pilot project for early learning quality assurance reports, gifted education, allowing non-public schools students to be eligible for the A+ Schools program and a "trauma-informed schools" initiative.

Calzone argues those changes violate two constitutional provisions:

"No law shall be passed except by bill, and no bill shall be so amended in its passage through either house as to change its original purpose."

"No bill shall contain more than one subject which shall be clearly expressed in its title."

Calzone, of Dixon, is the executive director of a group called "Missouri First," and is a familiar sight walking the Capitol halls and testifying at committee meetings.

Even though he's not an attorney, Calzone said he filed the lawsuit on his own "in part to demonstrate that the abuses by the General Assembly are so blatant that even a non-lawyer can succeed in legal challenges against some of their bills."

And, he noted in a news release, he's been successful at least once before, when Cole County Circuit Judge Dan Green agreed with his May 2015 lawsuit challenging the passage of a 2014 law that underwent similar changes.

As part of an 11-page judgment in February 2016, Green wrote Calzone had raised four claims the bill violated the state Constitution, and "the state presented no evidence against" the claims.

Green blocked the state from taking any actions under that law, and the attorney general didn't appeal the ruling.

However, Calzone said in this week's news release, in spite of Green's ruling, lawmakers have "continued to pass bills in violation of the Missouri Constitution."

He said this week's new lawsuit is the first of several he plans to file challenging some of the 21 bills he said lawmakers passed last year that violated the constitutional requirements.