Mo. State Conference of the Nat'l Ass'n for the Advancement of Colored People v. State

• Decision Date: 30 October 2018
• Docket Number: WD 81484
• Parties: Missouri STATE CONFERENCE OF the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR the ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE, et al., Appellants, v. STATE of Missouri, et al., Respondents.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

563 S.W.3d 138

Missouri STATE CONFERENCE OF the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR the ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE, et al., Appellants,

v.STATE of Missouri, et al., Respondents.

WD 81484

Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District.

OPINION FILED: October 30, 2018

Anthony E. Rothert and Jessie Steffan, ACLU of Missouri Foundation, St. Louis, MO; Sophia Lin Lakin (pro hac vice), American Civil Liberties Foundation, New York, NY; Denise D. Lieberman and Sabrina Kahn (pro hac vice), Advancement Project, Washington, DC; and Gillian R. Wilcox, ACLU of Missouri Foundation, Kansas City, MO, Attorneys for Appellants.

Joshua D. Hawley, Attorney General, Ryan L. Bangert, Deputy Attorney General, and Jonathan G. Bremer, Assistant Attorney General, Jefferson City, MO, Attorneys for Respondent State of Missouri.

Frank Jung, General Counsel, and Khristine A. Heisinger, Deputy General Counsel, Office of Secretary of State John R. Ashcroft, Jefferson City, MO, Attorneys for Respondent Secretary of State John R. Ashcroft.

Before Division Two: Alok Ahuja, Presiding Judge, and Mark D. Pfeiffer and Thomas N. Chapman, Judges

Mark D. Pfeiffer, Judge

The Missouri State Conference for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ("MoNAACP"), the League of Women Voters of Missouri ("MoLWV"), and Ms. Christine Dragonette ("Dragonette") (collectively, "Appellants") appeal from the Judgment of the Circuit Court of Cole County, Missouri ("trial court"), granting the State of Missouri’s ("State") and Missouri Secretary of State John R. Ashcroft’s ("Secretary of State") (collectively, "Respondents") motions for judgment on the pleadings, and dismissing without prejudice Appellants' declaratory judgment and injunctive relief action challenging enforcement of the personal identification requirements of section 115.427¹ ("Voter ID Law"). We reverse the entry of judgment on the pleadings and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

Factual and Procedural Background²

The Voter ID Law became effective June 1, 2017. House Bill No. 1631 repealed the text of section 115.427 of the Missouri Revised Statutes, and replaced it with new text. Under the newly effective provisions:

Persons seeking to vote in a public election shall establish their identity and eligibility to vote at the polling place by presenting a form of personal identification to election officials. No form of personal identification other than the forms listed in this section shall be accepted to establish a voter’s qualifications to vote. Forms of personal identification that satisfy the requirements of this section are any one of the following:

(1) Nonexpired Missouri driver’s license;

(2) Nonexpired or nonexpiring Missouri nondriver’s license;

(3) A document that satisfies all of the following requirements:

(a) The document contains the name of the individual to whom the document was issued, and the name substantially conforms to the most recent signature in the individual’s voter registration record;

(b) The document shows a photograph of the individual;

(c) The document includes an expiration date, and the document is not expired, or, if expired, the document expired after the date of the most recent general election; and

(d) The document was issued by the United States or the state of Missouri;

or

(4) Any identification containing a photograph of the individual which is issued by the Missouri National Guard, the United States armed forces, or the United States Department of Veteran Affairs to a member or former member of the Missouri National Guard or the United States armed forces and that is not expired or does not have an expiration date.

§ 115.427.1. The statute permits persons without the listed forms of identification to cast regular or provisional ballots in certain circumstances, described in sections 115.427.2 through .4.

In addition to requiring a voter to establish his or her qualifications to vote by presenting a satisfactory form of personal identification prior to voting in person, section 115.427 imposes obligations upon the Secretary of State, the Department of Revenue, and other government agencies and entities. Section 115.427.5 requires the Secretary of State to:

provide advance notice of the personal identification requirements of subsection 1 of this section in a manner calculated to inform the public generally of the requirement for forms of personal identification as provided in this section. Such advance notice shall include, at a minimum, the use of advertisements and public service announcements in print, broadcast television, radio, and cable television media, as well as the posting of information on the opening pages of the official state internet websites of the secretary of state and governor.

Section 115.427.6(1) requires the State and all fee offices to "provide one nondriver’s license at no cost to any otherwise qualified voter who does not already possess such identification and who desires the identification in order to vote." The State and its agencies are further required to:

provide one copy of each of the following, free of charge, if needed by an individual seeking to obtain a form of personal identification described in subsection 1 of this section in order to vote:

(a) A birth certificate;

(b) A marriage license or certificate;

(c) A divorce decree;

(d) A certificate of decree of adoption;

(e) A court order changing the person’s name;

(f) A social security card reflecting an updated name; and

(g) Naturalization papers or other documents from the United States Department of State proving citizenship.

Any individual seeking one of the above documents in order to obtain a form of personal identification described in subsection 1 of this section in order to vote may request the secretary of state to facilitate the acquisition of such documents. The secretary of state shall pay any fee or fees charged by another state or its agencies, or any court of competent jurisdiction in this state or any other state, or the federal government or its agencies, in order to obtain any of the above documents from such state or the federal government.

§ 115.427.6(2). Furthermore:

Any applicant who requests a nondriver’s license for the purpose of voting shall not be required to pay a fee if the applicant executes a statement, under penalty of perjury, averring that the applicant does not have any other form of personal identification that meets the requirements of this section. The [S]tate of Missouri shall pay the legally required fees for any such applicant. The director of the department of revenue shall design a statement to be used for this purpose. The total cost associated with nondriver’s license photo identification under this subsection shall be borne by the [S]tate of Missouri from funds appropriated to the department of revenue for that specific purpose. The department of revenue and a local election authority may enter into a contract that allows the local election authority to assist the department in issuing nondriver’s license photo identifications.

§ 115.427.6(4). Section 115.427.6(3) provides that "[a]ll costs associated with the implementation of this section shall be reimbursed from the general revenue of this state by an appropriation for that purpose. If there is not a sufficient appropriation of state funds, then the personal identification requirements of subsection 1 of this section shall not be enforced ." (Emphasis added.)

On June 8, 2017, MoNAACP and MoLWV filed a petition for injunctive and declaratory relief against the State, the Secretary of State, and the Board of Election Commissioners for the City of St. Louis. Count I alleged that section 115.427 was unenforceable because the General Assembly did not appropriate sufficient state funds from the general revenue for the purpose of paying the costs associated with the statute’s implementation. Count II alleged that section 115.427 violated article X, sections 16 and 21 of the Missouri Constitution (the Hancock Amendment) by requiring new or expanded activities by local election authorities without full state financing.

On June 30, 2017, MoNAACP and MoLWV filed a first amended petition, adding Christine Dragonette, a resident of St. Louis and director of the state-issued-personal-identification acquisition program at St. Francis Xavier College Church, as a plaintiff, and naming as defendants the State, the Secretary of State, and the Director of the Department of Revenue. Appellants added a third count for specific performance, alleging that Respondents "have not carried out necessary activities to ensure that the statute is implemented as intended."

On August 29, 2017, the Secretary of State moved to dismiss the first amended petition, and the State and the Director of the Department of Revenue moved for judgment on the pleadings. On October 10, 2017, Appellants dismissed Counts II (Hancock Amendment) and III (specific performance) of their amended petition. On November 9, 2017, the trial court held a hearing on the remaining count of the amended petition (the allegation that section 115.427 cannot be enforced because there were insufficient appropriations to comply with the statute), heard the arguments of counsel, and took the matter under advisement.

On November 22, 2017, Appellants moved for leave to file a second amended petition. On December 6, 2017, the trial court entered judgment, granting the Secretary of State’s motion to dismiss, granting the State’s motion for judgment on the pleadings, granting the Director of Revenue’s motion for judgment on the pleadings, dismissing the first amended petition without prejudice, and granting Appellants leave to file their second amended petition.

In the second amended petition, Appellants more specifically alleged³ that the legislature had not provided a sufficient appropriation of state funds from the general revenue for the purpose of paying the costs associated with the implementation of section 115.427 relating to state and...