Brown v. Missouri Secretary of State

The appeals consolidated in this opinion arise from lawsuits challenging three proposed initiatives — a tobacco tax initiative, a minimum wage initiative, and a payday *644loan initiative.1 The underlying suits sought to prevent the initiatives from appearing on Missouri’s ballot for the November 2012 election. Each of the cases challenges the constitutional validity of section 116.175,2 which directs that the state auditor “shall assess the fiscal impact of’ any proposed initiative petition and prepare a fiscal note and fiscal note summary.3 Opponents of the proposed initiatives maintain that…