Free Speech For People joined the legal team defending the Take Back St. Louis ballot initiative campaign. This ballot initiative, which would amend the city charter of St. Louis (Missouri) to prevent the city from granting tax breaks to fossil fuel and nuclear mining companies, was challenged in court before the ballots were printed. At the preliminary injunction stage, the judge (citing Citizens United) found that the initiative would violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, as well as state law.

Last week, we joined in filing an appeal brief in the Circuit Court in Saint Louis in the case formerly known as Noel v. Board of Election Commissioners, now Jones v. Noel. Our brief argues that the initiative does not violate federal or state equal protection principles, and that the trial court applied the wrong level of Equal Protection Clause Scrutiny. An in-depth look at the Equal Protection argument can be viewed here.

Click to download the Noel v. Jones Appellant’s Brief