Did the Missouri AG approve the form of Deirdre Hirner's 2019 Article XIV initiative petition (file 2020-128)?

Plain-English summary

Deirdre Hirner filed several near-parallel initiative petitions in 2019 to amend Article XIV of the Missouri Constitution, the article that deals with marijuana. Petition 2020-128 is one of those variants. This letter does not describe what the petition would change within Article XIV; it names only the article and the petitioner and reviews form.

Under § 116.332 RSMo, the Secretary of State sends each filed petition to the Attorney General for a "sufficiency as to form" review. AG Schmitt's letter here approves the form of 2020-128. The letter is explicit that this is not a determination that the petition is sufficient as to substance, not an endorsement of the petition or its proponents' objectives, and does not bind the Secretary of State, who keeps "final authority to approve or reject the petition."

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 2019. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here. (Notably, Missouri voters approved a different recreational marijuana amendment, Amendment 3, in November 2022, so the legal landscape for cannabis in Missouri has changed substantially since 2019.)

Common questions

Q: What does "sufficiency as to form" cover?
A: It is a check on the petition's structure and drafting under the Chapter 116 RSMo rules, not a review of the policy. As the letter puts it, approving the form is not a determination that the petition is "sufficient as to substance," and is not an endorsement of the proposal.

Q: Why are there several Hirner Article XIV petitions?
A: This opinion does not explain. What the record shows is that Hirner filed more than one petition in this family (2020-126, 2020-127, 2020-128, and the related 2020-125), each getting its own form review. Filing parallel versions is a common way for proponents to keep options open, but the opinion itself does not state the reason.

Q: Was this the petition that legalized recreational marijuana in Missouri?
A: No. Missouri voters later approved a separate measure (Amendment 3) in November 2022. The 2019 Hirner petitions tracked here did not become law in this form. This opinion only confirms that the petition's form passed the AG's § 116.332 review.

Q: Who has final authority?
A: The Secretary of State, John R. Ashcroft at the time. The AG's letter is an advisory checkpoint. § 116.332 expressly leaves "final authority to approve or reject the petition" with the Secretary of State.

Background and statutory framework

This letter is the form-review step of the Chapter 116 RSMo initiative process: under § 116.332 RSMo the Secretary of State refers each filed petition to the AG, who reviews it for sufficiency as to form and returns an approval or rejection while the Secretary of State keeps final authority over the petition. The only statute the letter cites is § 116.332 RSMo.

Citations and references

Statutes: § 116.332 RSMo (the operative provision for AG form review, the only statute the opinion cites).

Sister sufficiency-as-to-form opinions in the Hirner Article XIV cluster: 231-2019 (petition 2020-126), 232-2019 (petition 2020-127).

Other Hirner Article XIV procedural opinions in the same cluster: 233-2019 (fiscal note review for petition 2020-125), 246-2019 (summary statement review for 2020-125), 247-2019, 250-2019, 251-2019, 252-2019.

Source

• Landing page: https://ago.mo.gov/other-resources/ag-opinions/
• Original PDF: https://ago.mo.gov/wp-content/uploads/attachments/234-2019.pdf?sfvrsn=2

Original opinion text

Best-effort transcription from a scanned PDF. Minor errors may remain, the linked PDF is authoritative.

ATTORNEY GENERAL OF MISSOURI

Eric SCHMITT

November 15, 2019

OPINION LETTER NO. 234-2019

The Honorable John R. Ashcroft
Missouri Secretary of State
James C. Kirkpatrick State Information Center
600 West Main Street
Jefferson City, MO 65101

Dear Secretary Ashcroft:

This opinion letter responds to your request dated November 5, 2019, for our review under § 116.332, RSMo, of the sufficiency as to form of an initiative petition to amend Article XIV of the Missouri Constitution submitted by Deirdre Hirner, (2020-128).

We approve the petition as to form, but § 116.332 gives the Secretary of State final authority to approve or reject the petition. Therefore, our approval of the form of the petition does not preclude you from rejecting the petition.

Because our review of the petition is simply for the purpose of determining sufficiency as to form, the fact that we do not reject the petition is not to be construed as a determination that the petition is sufficient as to substance. Likewise, because our review is mandated by statute, no action that we take with respect to such review should be construed as an endorsement of the petition or of the objectives of its proponents, or the expression of any view respecting the adequacy or inadequacy of the petition generally.

Very truly yours,

ERIC S. SCHMITT
Attorney General

Supreme Court Building
207 W. High Street
P.O. Box 899 OP-2019-0268
Jefferson City, MO 65102
Phone: (573) 751-3321
Fax: (573) 751-0774
www.ago.mo.gov