98-2025: INITIATIVES.INITIATIVE PETITIONS.

ATTORNEY GENERAL OF MISSOURI
ANDREW BAILEY
Supreme Court Building
207 W. High Street
P.O. Box 899
Jefferson City, MO 65102
Phone: (573) 751-3321
Fax: (573) 751-0774
www.ago.mo.gov
June 23, 2025
OPINION LETTER NO. 98-2025
The Honorable Denny Hoskins
Missouri Secretary of State
James C. Kirkpatrick State Information Center
600 West Main Street
Jefferson City, MO 65101
Dear Secretary Hoskins:
This opinion letter responds to your request dated June 13, 2025 for our review
under § 116.334, RSMo of a proposed summary statement prepared for the petition
submitted by Jamie Howard, 2026-045. The proposed summary statement is as follows:
Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to:
• prohibit the legislature from repealing, amending, or overriding voter-approved
initiatives without referring the change to voters by an eighty percent vote;
• prohibit legislative changes to the initiative and referendum process;
• require votes on such measures at general elections unless a special election is
approved by eighty percent of legislators and the governor;
• require courts to promptly rewrite misleading ballot titles;
• maintain existing signature and vote thresholds for initiative and referendum
petitions; and
• declare the section self-executing and severable, with all provisions interpreted
to strongly protect the people’s initiative and referendum powers?
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,
ANDREW BAILEY
Attorney General
OP-2025-109