This November, Missouri voters will decide the fate of Amendment 6, a constitutional measure I believe poses one of the most significant threats to representative government our state has faced in decades. After reviewing the amendment's language and its implications, I am urging Missourians to vote "No" — and to understand exactly why before they head to the polls.
Amendment 6 would begin to erode the foundation of our republic permanently by allowing unvetted laws to be passed by dark-money special interests, prohibiting any future changes to the initiative petition process, giving the courts authority over ballot language and more.
Missouri’s initiative petition process lets voters go around the state legislature to pass laws. A group drafts a proposal, gathers the required signatures and puts the proposal before voters statewide. Voters then decide whether it becomes law in one up-or-down vote.
There are no hearings, no edits or revisions, no conversations or debate, no corrections or amendments. Other groups don’t get an opportunity to have their voices heard to express concerns and there is no debate among elected representatives of the people. There is one vote based on a 100-word description, a TV commercial or mailer that never tells the whole story.
This is a huge downfall of the initiative process because initiatives are usually written by special interest groups for the benefit of that group.
Since the 80’s, the only initiatives passed have been those brought by large special interests who have the funds to pay for signatures to be gathered. Unfortunately, the IP process is not functioning as it was intended and large out-of-state groups have been able to change Missouri’s constitution and statutes to their liking.
Amendment 6 raises an important question: Who gets to write Missouri’s laws and who can fix the unintended consequences of those laws later?
Making adjustments to these laws would be virtually impossible if A6 passes. Whether the change needed was substantial, a small technical change, an emergency, or even if it just became outdated over time - elected lawmakers could not make the necessary adjustments.
The only way to make changes would be to first pass it through the legislature with an 80% majority in the House and Senate then bring it back to a vote of the people. Practically speaking, this is just not likely to happen due to the extremely high 80% threshold.
This provision in A6 would apply retroactively to January 1, 2010, recaching back to potentially reshape laws already on the books.
Amendment 6 will hand over our authority to unelected dark money groups to enshrine their laws in our state constitution with no way to reverse them.
Amendment 6 would also grant courts constitutional power to immediately rewrite ballot summaries, including fiscal summaries, through litigation. That would leave judges — not elected lawmakers — responsible for interpreting vague terms like "weaken" and "similar in effect" to determine when, if ever, the legislature is allowed to act.
Finally, by locking in the simple statewide-majority requirement and barring any future changes to the initiative petition process, Amendment 6 would make it impossible to ever require support across rural districts for a measure to pass. Urban voters would remain permanently in control of constitutional change in Missouri, with no path for rural communities to gain a meaningful voice in the process.
When asked what type of government they created, Ben Franklin responded, “A republic, if you can keep it.” I encourage every Missourian to do what is necessary to preserve our republic, by getting informed about this destructive constitutional amendment and voting NO on Amendment 6.
Learn more and find links to the full text, images to share and additional resources on my Amendment 6 webpage.
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