By Richard Eberwein – 1/28/26
Missouri’s annual State of the Judiciary address was canceled on Wednesday after Senate Republicans announced a boycott in response to a recent state Supreme Court decision.
State Sen. Rick Brattin (R-Harrisonville) appeared in a video posted to the Missouri Senate Republicans X account, where he accused the Supreme Court of overstepping.
“Folks, we have a judiciary that has unchecked power, they feel that they rule and they reign,” Brattin said. “We are the elected representatives; we are your voice in government. And we’re going to put a stop to this. We’re going to let them know that we’re equal branches. They continually rule against you, your voice.”
The boycott is in response to a recent Court decision that struck down Senate Bill 22, legislation written by Brattin that was signed into law by Gov. Mike Kehoe (R) last April. In the unanimous opinion delivered by Chief Justice W. Brent Powell, the court found SB 22 unconstitutional because multiple amendments to it changed the original purpose of the bill, which violates the Missouri’s Constitution.
How Republicans used SB 22
One of the provisions in SB 22 allowed the Secretary of State’s office three attempts to write unbiased language for ballot measures. Before SB 22, the power to rewrite unfair ballot language belonged to judges.
One of the most recent examples of biased language came last year, when Secretary of State Denny Hoskins (R) submitted a draft for Missouri’s upcoming redistricting referendum, which will allow voters to approve or deny a gerrymandered congressional map drawn by Republicans before it can be used in elections. People Not Politicians, the organization spearheading the referendum, challenged the language in court
Earlier this month, Hoskins’ lawyers admitted in court that his initial draft would “likely create prejudice.”
“On a further reflection of the ballot title, the secretary has come to believe that the language, though defensible, does come close enough to the line of being inherently argumentative and likely to create prejudice,” Hoskins’ lawyer Kathleen Hunker told Cole County Circuit Judge Brian Stumpe. “That means we can do better, and so we are going to withdraw our opposition to the plaintiff’s claim about how the language is inherently argumentative.”
People Not Politicians executive director Richard von Glahn said SB 22 being struck down is a good thing for the state.
“When SB 22 was being debated, I think it was appropriately referred to as the ‘let politicians lie act,’” von Glahn said. “You don’t need multiple opportunities to tell the truth. And what SB 22 did is it gave politicians, specifically the Secretary of State, multiple opportunities to just do their job and we shouldn’t need that. Not allowing them multiple opportunities I think makes it more likely for them to just be honest the first time.”
Von Glahn also said that Stumpe will rewrite the referendum’s redistricting ballot language.
Read the article here: https://heartlandsignal.com/2026/01/28/missouri-republicans-boycott-after-state-supreme-court-strikes-down-law-dubbed-let-politicians-lie-act/