Joyce asked to block campaign finance ballot proposal

Cole County Circuit Judge Pat Joyce is shown presiding in the courtroom in this March 14, 2016 file photo.
Cole County Circuit Judge Pat Joyce is shown presiding in the courtroom in this March 14, 2016 file photo.

For most of the last decade, Missouri has had no campaign finance restrictions.

Although the donors eventually must be identified in reports, people are free to give whatever amounts they want to whichever candidates they choose to support.

A proposed constitutional amendment would change that - and it has been certified for the Nov. 8 general election ballot.

But opponents told Cole County Presiding Circuit Judge Pat Joyce Tuesday she should block the issue from the November ballot.

Representing former state Sen. David Klindt as a taxpayer, as well as Linn-based Legends Bank and the Jefferson City-based Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives, lawyer Chuck Hatfield told Joyce his clients believe the initiative petition is unconstitutional because it violates free speech rights in the Missouri and U.S. constitutions.

Additionally, he said, Missouri's Constitution says "the initiative petition may not be used for any purpose prohibited by the Constitution," including interfering with free speech rights.

He argued the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in the Citizens United case several years ago "has made very clear that corporations have the right to make contributions,
and that they have First Amendment protections."

But the proposed amendment, he argued, includes language allowing private utility companies, like Ameren Missouri and Kansas City Power and Light, to make those contributions while prohibiting electric cooperatives from making similar contributions.

The petitions were circulated by a group called Returning Government to the People.

St. Louis attorney D. John Sauer told Joyce that Hatfield's lawsuit is trying to block the entire amendment from being placed on the ballot even though the lawsuit is "only challenging a tiny, tiny, minuscule subset of this proposed comprehensive reform of Missouri's badly broken campaign finance system."

In his trial brief, Sauer called Hatfield's lawsuit "the third meritless lawsuit by special interests and political insiders seeking to prevent the people of Missouri from voting on comprehensive campaign-finance reform."

He added the initiative petition doesn't just restrict political action committees or donations to candidates.

"It's a comprehensive reform as to all corporations, all labor unions, all business entities including state banks (and) utilities," he said. "It prohibits any direct contributions to candidates (or) political parties."

Sauer urged Joyce to rule Hatfield's challenge was made too soon - that it instead should be made only after the election, if voters approve the proposal.

He said the proposal is "exactly the same set of restrictions that federal law imposes on all corporations and national banking associations."

The attorney general's office, representing Secretary of State Jason Kander's office, agreed with Sauer the case isn't ready for Joyce's decision now but should wait until after the election.

Joyce promised a ruling by Thursday afternoon.