On February 8, the Missouri Supreme Court struck down a 1997 law that shortened the amount of time for circulation of a statewide referendum petition. No Bans on Choice v Ashcroft, SC98879. Here is the opinion. The vote is 5-2.

Before 1997, referendum petitions (which are used to block a new law just passed by the legislature) had at least 90 days to circulate. But in 1997, the legislature passed a law saying the petition couldn’t circulate until the Attorney General and the Secretary of state had chosen the “official ballot title”. In 2019, because of various delays caused by those state officials, the plaintiffs were left with only 14 days to circulate their petition, which required approximately 100,000 valid signatures. The lower court struck down the restriction on the starting date, and now the State Supreme Court has affirmed it. Thanks to Ken Bush for this news.