About 30 people led by the Missouri NAACP rallied at the Capitol on Tuesday to make an impassioned plea to Gov. Eric Greitens to veto Senate Bill 43.
The bill would raise the standard of proof for employment discrimination lawsuits. Opponents argue it would strip protections from Missouri workers and leave them vulnerable to workplace harassment and discrimination.
The group delivered a news conference on the third-floor rotunda outside the Senate chamber before delivering letters to Greitens' office. State Chapter President Rod Chapel said SB 43 is a step backward in protecting Missourians' civil rights.
"We hope that we'll be able to send to the governor, and to the legislators that passed this terrible piece of legislation, a message today from the people who will bear the costs from what they have done," Chapel said.
The group included several religious leaders, including the Rev. Wallace Hartsfield from Kansas City. He said the bill would be detrimental to Missourians and people must take a stand for what is right.
"This bill makes it easy to discriminate, and those in the protected class will no longer have any protection," Hartsfield said. "We can't afford to take Missouri's civil rights back to 1961."
The bill, sponsored by Republican state Sen. Gary Romine, was part of a large tort reform effort by the Legislature this spring. Proponents argue it will help prevent frivolous lawsuits and promote more business in Missouri.
Pat Rowe Kerr, former Missouri Veterans Commission ombudsman, said the bill would prevent employers from being held accountable for their actions. Kerr was fired from her job in 2009 and sued the commission, alleging gender and age discrimination and retaliation. She won the suit in 2016.
"We can't just do something because we want tort reform," Kerr said. "We can't do something that is wrong in its language so that we then have to spend taxpayer money to go back and fix."
The bill passed by a vote of 23-9 in the Senate and 98-30 in the House. Greitens has not indicated whether he will sign or veto the bill, but he could let it become law by taking no action on it.
Chapel said Greitens is a "person of courage and deep conviction" and that he doesn't expect him to take that route.
"I don't think that's his style of leadership," Chapel said. "I think he's got too much integrity for that."
Kerr, who said she's known Greitens since 2007, said neither signing nor
vetoing the bill would be out of character.
"Eric is a strong, wise man, and I do not believe that Eric would take the chicken's way out of anything," Kerr said. "It's certainly not to say that he won't do it, but it would be my hope that he doesn't because it won't speak well to his character."
The Missouri NAACP issued a travel advisory Monday, cautioning Missouri residents and those wanting to travel to Missouri that SB 43 might present risks to their safety and civil rights.
"We wanted everybody to be aware that this is a civil rights issue, that it is one that is emergent and needs to be addressed immediately to prevent further harm," Chapel said. The travel advisory does not amount to a boycott, but Chapel said a boycott would be called for if necessary.
After the news conference, the group went down a flight of stairs to tape letters to the wall outside Greitens' office and place shoes on the floor to "symbolize the journey that's already been taken, those steps that have already been trodden, and the victories won," Chapel said. "We can't go back now."