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Legal Challenge to 2016 SB 638
The Missouri General Assembly regularly passes bills without regard to the limitations on the legislative power the People placed in their Constitution. |
The Anti Commandeering Doctrine An analogy that explains the Supremacy Clause
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UPDATE February 26, 2018 Jefferson City, MO, February 26, 2018 - At the hearing a month ago, the judge asked both parties to draft a proposed judgment for him to edit and use in my challenge of Senate Bill 638, passed by the Missouri General Assembly in 2016. Now we wait to see how the judge rules. The Attorney General has been arguing that I didn't even have standing to bring the suit, so that will be the first question the judge resolves. If he agrees that I have standing, he will move on to the merits of the case. ###
UPDATE October 31, 2017 Jefferson City, MO, October 31, 2017 - A key motion in the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Senate Bill 638, passed by the Missouri General Assembly in 2016, was filed by the Plaintiff, Ron Calzone, in Cole County circuit court on October 31st. The Attorney General's office filed similar motions defending SB 638. Today's motion asks the court to rule on the case based on what has been filed so far, including some new affidavits from some not-so-ordinary citizens who have been in the trenches fighting the high-priced lobbyists and special interests in Jefferson City. These citizen activist warriors illustrate in their affidavits the wisdom of the framers of the Missouri Constitution -- particularly why the constitutional requirement to keep bills focused on the one original purpose is so important. See the green box in the right sidebar for links to documents filed today. (Calzone challenged a second bill, SB 665 (2016), too. A similar motion was filed in that case today, too. (CASE NO. 17AC-CC00291) Prior to today's filings, five of the defendants were dismissed from the case. Four were the Speaker of the House, Majority Floor Leader of the House, President Pro tem of the Senate, and the Floor Leader of the Senate. Although these four individuals are most responsible for the passage of procedurally unconstitutional bills, there is nothing the court can do to make them provide "relief" if the bill is found unconstitutional, so they claimed not to be appropriate defendants. ###
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Missouri Activist Sues Over Illegal Conduct by the General Assembly - Again Jefferson City, MO, May 9, 2017 - A lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Senate Bill 638, passed by the Missouri General Assembly in 2016, was filed in Cole County circuit court on May 9th. The lawsuit claims that the General Assembly ignored the constitutional limits to their legislative authority. The Missouri Constitution includes clauses that prohibit legislators from changing the purpose of a bill or including multiple subjects in one bill. The lawsuit claims lawmakers violated both provisions, and that it is illegal to make substantive changes to a bill's title. The lawsuit is asking the court to strike down the entire bill. The plaintiff in the challenge is Ron Calzone, a political activist and one of the founding directors of Missouri First, Inc., a think tank devoted to promoting constitutional governance. Although not an attorney, Calzone filed the suit “pro se” (Latin, “for oneself”), 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. Calzone won a similar case in 2016. He had challenged SB 672 (2014) on the same grounds as the case filed today. A Cole County judge not only agreed with the lawsuit's claims about the unconstitutional procedures used to pass that bill, but the landmark decision also struck down the entire bill. (Read about it here.) Past court opinions on procedural challenges usually preserved the original part of the bill. In spite of the Court's February 2016 admonition to legislators, they continued to pass bills in violation of the Missouri Constitution. Senate Bill 638 was one of 21 such bills Missouri First tracked last year. Calzone plans to challenge more of those 21 bills later this month. ### 05/09/2017 - Lawsuit Filed Case style: CALZONE v. Missouri General Assembly (See right sidebar for links to court documents.)
List of defendants:
Nature of Legal Action:
What was SB 638's original purpose / subject?
Initial Bill Title:
What purpose / subject(s) did the bill evolve into?
Final Bill Title:
Count 1:
Count 2:
Count 3:
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What is Mercantilism? “Mercantilism, which reached its height in the Europe of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, was a system of statism which employed economic fallacy to build up a structure of imperial state power, as well as special subsidy and monopolistic privilege to individuals or groups favored by the state.”
Case Time-line and Files: 05/09/2017: Case Filed 10/31/2017: Motion for Summary Judgment Filed
Judge's Ruling in Calzone v. Koster (2015) 02/26/2018: Proposed Judgment Filed Article I, Section 1 explains who's in charge: Article I Section 2 explains the primary role of Missouri government: “That all constitutional government is intended to promote the general welfare of the people; that all persons have a natural right to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and the enjoyment of the gains of their own industry; that all persons are created equal and are entitled to equal rights and opportunity under the law; that to give security to these things is the principal office of government, and that when government does not confer this security, it fails in its chief design.” (emphasis added) (MO Const. Art. I, Sec. 2) Article III Section 21 stipulates that no bill can be changed from its original purpose: Article III Section 23 stipulates that no bill can have more than one subject and that subject must be clearly identified by the bill's title: Article III Section 40(30) disallows most "special laws": How did legislators vote on SB 672?:
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"Our citizens have wisely formed themselves into one nation as to others and several States as among themselves. To the united nation belong our external and mutual relations; to each State, severally, the care of our persons, our property, our reputation and religious freedom." -- Thomas Jefferson: To Rhode Island Assembly, 1801
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Benjamin Franklin wrote in 1787:
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