Missourians for Constitutional Freedom launched this morning to collect signatures for a ballot initiative putting reproductive freedom into the state constitution.

Here's an explanation 🧵 of what the petition includes.

moconstitutionalfreedom.org The petition was delayed for quite some time by Attorney General Andrew Bailey and Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft.

Judges had to stop both from abusing their offices and preventing Missourians from accessing the ballot. Now signature collection can start.

On October 13, 2021, someone from Massachusetts went to Jess Piper's ActBlue account and fraudulently donated $30 using the name of a Missouri elected official.

But that scammer won't be held accountable. Instead, Jess has had to deal with the Missouri Ethics Commission for months and its decision to go after her as the candidate who was the target of the scam.

For context, that $30 donation was one of 749 she received that quarter, and one of over 7,500 she got for the election.

Northview Village, a nursing home in St. Louis City, closed without warning right before Christmas.

Some residents were sent to different nursing homes without telling family members. One resident was found at a bus stop. One is missing.

None of the workers were paid. I met the wife of one of the residents in court last week.

When her husband - a veteran - was quickly moved, she spent a long time trying to find him. When she finally found him, he was wearing someone else's clothes that didn't fit and had no idea what had happened to him.

I just cannot believe what is happening. Last night and into this morning, Sarah - a state representative - was part of an antisemite's Twitter show where they targeted my wife and made sure to tell their listeners that it's really easy to get away with murder in St. Louis.

https://twitter.com/gavinbena/status/1732994687105962150

Sarah was specifically asked about this tweet from Gavin in the middle of the show, and, without hesitation, she doubled down on how my wife works for the Anti-Defamation League so therefore I am an Israeli agent with a mission to stop her from uncovering human trafficking.

It's unacceptable that a sitting Missouri State Representative is proud to be drinking lemonade, taking selfies, and working with a white supremacist and Nazi sympathizer who denies the Holocaust and has made a career profiting off of conspiracy theories and harassment.

https://twitter.com/RiverfrontTimes/status/1732120957731410260

It's also unacceptable for an elected official to bully and harass those who have questioned her about all of this, folks who work hard for Missourians every day.

Every one of you deserves better.

No excuse for St. Louis City trying to displace poor families living in tents outside City Hall in the middle of the night.

"Where are we supposed to go?"

The police - who didn't want to be there - didn't know. That question led to the removal being postponed to this morning. Housing instability is a massive problem in our state and our country, and it's getting worse.

Rents are up, rates are up, prices for everything are up, wages aren't growing fast enough because millionaires want to be billionaires.

Where are people supposed to go?

Last night, a grand jury indicted former President Donald Trump in Georgia. A section of the indictment is directly related to the records I uncovered through Missouri's Sunshine Law two years ago as part of a corruption investigation into Missouri government.

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https://twitter.com/BigElad/status/1691297380220514304

The indictment includes actions taken by the President and others to further an illegal effort to overturn the election.

According to the indictment, President Trump already had a plan in place to undermine the election in the event that he lost.

He wasn't the only one.

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This was only one quarter of the packed room in New Melle last night.

Our Attorney General needs to sue the Department of Energy for poisoning Missouri with radioactive waste and covering it up.

This fight shouldn't be left to moms begging our government for records. Republicans and Democrats have been calling on Missouri's Attorney General to do his job and get the feds to take responsibility for all the expenses involved in protecting our families.

Please take a few seconds to sign the petition here: actionnetwork.org/petitions/stop…

Missouri's Attorney General is using Missouri consumer protection laws (the Merchandising Practices Act) to issue a rule regarding trans health care, but his actions go well beyond that.

The use of this extreme authority in this context will impact just about everything.

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https://twitter.com/LeighfromBham/status/1646625796960710656

Missouri Revised Statutes Chapter 407 gives the Attorney General the power to go after scammers, like fake charities or car dealers selling lemons.

The law is very broad. Just take a look.

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Sure. Here's evidence of how Missouri Republicans are failing our state.

Exhibit 1: This chart shows the defunding of Missouri public schools pushed by Missouri Republicans for the last decade.

The chart is taken from a state audit report: auditor.mo.gov/AuditReport/Vi…

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https://twitter.com/ThomBlank/status/1643957535383093250

Exhibit 2: The so-called Second Amendment Preservation Act passed by Republicans defunds police departments that work with federal agents to stop violent crime.

stltoday.com/news/local/cri…

Attorney General Andrew Bailey decided he hadn't been on TV enough last week, so he declared an emergency order attacking trans Missourians.

While he prepares for his next TV interview climbing the ladder to his next office, families are considering fleeing the state.

1/ What the Attorney General doesn't want you doing is thinking about the families he is hurting. He doesn't want you to think of the years of counseling, the agonizing worry of parents, the suicide attempts, or even the smiles that return when folks are accepted.

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In 2019, one of my 7-year-old students was getting ready for the first day of school the evening before. He was excited, got his hair ready, couldn’t wait. He was in his backyard walking home with his two sisters when a bullet flew into him.

He died in his parents’ arms. I was at the memorial where politicians came and spoke. They talked about justice, about gun violence. Some words were backed up by action. Many were not.

That’s where I heard St. Louis’s prosecutor promise whatever justice she could bring for the family.

It didn’t come.

🚨🚨🚨 Today at noon, a committee of the Missouri House of Representatives will discuss ways to take away our rights as Missourians to put issues on the ballot.

Take a minute and tell them to "Vote No" on all the proposed bills here: house.mo.gov/WitnessForm/De…

1/ Several Missouri state representatives are trying to make the initiative petition process way harder for We the People to get issues on the ballot (but keep it easy for them to do the same!).

You can read the different bills here:
house.mo.gov/AllHearings.as…

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Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt is pretending that he only now discovered that Agape Boarding School is torturing kids and that he has done everything he can to help them.

That is not at all true. He's lying to you because he got caught not doing his job. Again.

https://twitter.com/AGEricSchmitt/status/1571978989820084225

Eric Schmitt knew about Agape a long time ago. He was assigned to help prosecute the abusers in 2021.

When the local prosecutor protected his abusive buddies, Eric Schmitt didn't try to remove the prosecutor. He fought for kids by... asking to be removed from the case!

There are a lot of questions about Missouri's strict abortion ban, including about the legality of contraception.

The law is confusing and far-reaching, and it's a prime example of why this shouldn't be any of the government's business.

https://twitter.com/BryanLowry3/status/1541980901571166216

RSMo. 188.015 defines "Abortion" in two ways.

There are differences between these definitions. Definition 1 includes attempts to terminate an embryo or fetus in the uterus.

Definition 2 requires the termination of a pregnancy whether or not the embryo has reached the uterus.

My wife was raped. Like many folks who are, she was afraid to come forward. Will other people believe? Will the community look at her differently? Will police even do anything?

Tasha went to police. She went to her friends in high places who could help her. They let her down.

https://twitter.com/tashakaminsky/status/1539714843200086026

This is common. Police were unwilling to recommend charging rape in the 1st degree. In Missouri, rape in the 1st degree can be charged anytime. Rape 2nd comes with a 3-year statute of limitations.

That's something Tasha tried to get changed, even though it wouldn't help her.

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt is lying again.

Missouri has a long history of permitting school districts to impose health orders to protect students.

abc17news.com/news/2021/12/0…

1/ Take a look at this case from 1911: State ex rel. Ranney v. Sch. Dist. of City of Cape Girardeau, 141 S.W. 640, 642 (1911).

The Court found that elected school boards have wide latitude to even exclude students from school due to infectious diseases.

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There's a deeper problem to Missouri Governor Mike Parson threatening to prosecute a reporter for finding and informing officials that teachers' Social Security Numbers were visible online:

His attempt to expand corrupted state power.

stltoday.com/news/local/gov…

1/ The Governor had two days to think about how to respond to the state's teachers' SSNs being publicly accessible online for anyone who knew how to right click on a mouse. The reporter told state officials and promised to hold off on publishing anything.

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By now, you've probably seen that Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt is trying to sue every school district in our state to stop them from issuing or enforcing mask requirements.

A lot of you have asked what can you do to protect your kids.

1/ First, the Attorney General's lawsuit - like much of his work - is not very good. Much of the lawsuit is an anti-mask screed wherein our Attorney General claims to know science better than scientists. He attempts to cite studies to support his position and continuously fails.

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Missouri's Supreme Court unanimously ruled in the case Elad Gross v. Governor Michael Parson, et al. that the government must stop putting up roadblocks to members of the public seeking public records.

missouriindependent.com/2021/06/29/mis…

1/ For years, Missouri government agencies charged members of the public, reporters, even elected officials huge attorney's fees to access records despite the law never permitting such charges.

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Missouri legislators and Missouri's Governor passed a really bad, anti-police, pro-violence gun law, and the Attorney General is fully behind it. They're pushing an awful narrative that unfortunately a lot of media outlets are picking up.

Here's an explainer 🧵.

1/ FIRST, can the state nullify federal gun laws?
No. Article VI, Section 2 states that federal laws override state laws.

constitution.congress.gov/browse/article…

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