Dubbed "Amendment 2," the change to the Missouri state constitution would affirm the rights of citizens to express their religious beliefs and the rights of children to pray and acknowledge God in schools.
Tom Smart, Deseret News
MISSOURI — The "right to pray" amendment to Missouri's constitution was expected to pass — and it did, capturing an overwhelming 83 percent of the vote on Tuesday. Also expected was a quick trip to court after passage — and that happened Wednesday.
Dubbed "Amendment 2," the change to the state constitution would affirm the rights of citizens to express their religious beliefs and the rights of children to pray and acknowledge God in schools. It would also allow students to be exempted from classroom activities that violate their religious beliefs.
But a provision not mentioned in the ballot summary, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, states prison inmates' religious rights will be limited to federal law.
And that created an opening for the American Civil Liberties Union to file suit alleging the amendment violates inmates' 14th Amendment's equal protection clause and the First Amendment's protection of religious freedom, because the Missouri Constitution provides more protections of religious liberty than the U.S. Constitution.
“Think of the U.S. Constitution, which provides basic religious rights, as a cake, and the Missouri Constitution, which provided additional religious liberties, as the icing,” said ACLU-Eeastern Missouri legal director Tony Rothert in a statement. “The newly passed Amendment 2 will strip the icing off that cake for prisoners, and doing so perpetuates the stereotype that prisoners are inferior and less worthy of the protection of their right to prayer under the Missouri Constitution.”
It likely won't be the only lawsuit filed over the amendment that one lawmaker called a "jobs bill for lawyers."
"There will probably be many lawsuits," Rothert told the Associated Press. "This is just one very narrow challenge of one small part of this amendment. There are multiple ways that the amendment is susceptible to legal challenge."
There was no comment Thursday afternoon on the lawsuit from the state or backers of the amendment.
State Rep. Mike McGhee, a Republican who sponsored the amendment, told the Religion News Service before Tuesday's vote that the amendment would remind people about their religious freedoms, such as reading religious books at school.
"It's OK to bring your Bible to study hall," he said.
The amendment was backed by Missouri's four Catholic bishops and the Missouri Baptist Convention.
