Did Missouri's AG approve the Secretary of State's summary statement for the Michael Louis labor-union initiative petition version 3 (2020-014)?

Plain-English summary

Under § 116.334, RSMo, the Missouri Secretary of State drafts a summary statement describing the legal effect of an initiative petition, and the Attorney General reviews the draft for legal content and form. The review is mandated by statute and does not signal any view on the merits.

This opinion approved the Secretary of State's draft summary statement for Petition 2020-014, version 3, submitted by Michael Louis. The proposed amendment to Article I of the Missouri Constitution would have prohibited any law or ordinance impairing, restricting, or limiting the ability of employees to negotiate, enter into, and enforce any collectively bargained agreement with an employer providing financial support of the labor union.

Version 3's drafting is narrower than version 2 (Opinion 19-2019). Version 2 spoke of "the negotiation and enforcement of any collectively bargained agreement with an employer respecting financial support by employees of their labor union" and included a separate prong protecting employer collective bargaining. Version 3 focuses solely on the employee side: the ability to negotiate, enter into, and enforce a collectively bargained agreement providing financial support to the labor union.

This opinion is one of a series of summary-statement approvals for variant Louis petitions. See companion opinions: 18-2019 (version 1, 2020-012), 19-2019 (version 2, 2020-013), 21-2019 (version 4, 2020-015).

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 2019. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. The 2020-014 petition was one of multiple alternative versions; consult the Missouri Secretary of State's initiative records to see which versions advanced.

Common questions

How does this petition differ from version 2 (2020-013)?

Version 3 is shorter and only addresses the employee side of collective bargaining: it prohibits laws limiting employees' ability to negotiate and enforce union financial support agreements. Version 2 has a parallel prong protecting employer collective bargaining rights.

Why submit so many drafts?

Initiative sponsors commonly file multiple drafts so they can choose, after the AG and Secretary of State have signed off on each, which version to circulate. Filing multiple drafts protects against the risk that the chosen version's summary statement gets struck down in court before signatures can be gathered.

Does AG approval mean the petition is legal?

Only that the summary statement is sufficient under § 116.334, RSMo. The substantive constitutional questions (whether the amendment, if adopted, would conflict with federal law or other parts of the Missouri Constitution) are not decided by this review.

What is § 116.334, RSMo?

The Missouri statute requiring the AG to review the Secretary of State's draft summary statement for initiative petitions, and approve or reject it. The reviewed summary statement is what voters see on the petition.

Background and statutory framework

The Missouri initiative process is governed by Chapter 116, RSMo. The statute the AG cites in this letter is § 116.334, under which the Secretary of State drafts the summary statement and the AG reviews its legal content and form. Other steps (form review, the State Auditor's fiscal note, signature gathering) run under other provisions of Chapter 116. All of these go on the petition that circulates for signatures.

Source

• Landing page: https://ago.mo.gov/other-resources/ag-opinions/
• Original PDF: https://ago.mo.gov/wp-content/uploads/attachments/20-2019.pdf?sfvrsn=2

Original opinion text

Best-effort transcription from a scanned PDF. Minor errors may remain. The linked PDF is authoritative.

ATTORNEY GENERAL OF MISSOURI
ERIC SCHMITT, ATTORNEY GENERAL
JEFFERSON CITY, P.O. Box 899, 65102
(573) 751-3321

January 18, 2019

OPINION LETTER NO. 20-2019

The Honorable John R. Ashcroft
Missouri Secretary of State
James C. Kirkpatrick State Information Center
600 West Main Street
Jefferson City, MO 65101

Dear Secretary Ashcroft:

This opinion letter responds to your request dated January 8, 2019, for our review under § 116.334, RSMo, of a proposed summary statement prepared for the petition submitted by Michael Louis regarding a proposed constitutional amendment to amend Article I of the Missouri Constitution, version 3 (2020-014). The proposed summary statement is as follows:

Do you want to amend the Missouri Constitution to prohibit any law or ordinance that would impair, restrict or limit the ability of employees to negotiate, enter into and enforce any collectively bargained agreement with an employer providing financial support of the labor union?

Pursuant to § 116.334, RSMo, we approve the legal content and form of the proposed statement. Because our review of the statement is mandated by statute, no action that we take with respect to such review should be construed as an endorsement of the petition, nor as the expression of any view regarding the objectives of its proponents.

Very truly yours,

ERIC S. SCHMITT
Attorney General

OP-2019-0010