Federal court strikes down Missouri lobbying ban for former lawmakers as rights violation
A federal appeals court on Monday struck down Missouri’s two-year ban on lobbying by former lawmakers, finding the restrictions violate the First Amendment.
The U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of former state Rep. Rocky Miller, a Lake Ozark Republican, and General Assembly employee John LaVanchy. Both men had sued to overturn the lobbying ban, which voters approved in 2018 as part of the Clean Missouri amendment to the state constitution.
The amendment prohibits current lawmakers and employees of the General Assembly from paid lobbying during their time of service and for two years after they leave office. The appeals court found that the ban on lobbying after leaving office is too broad and that Missouri had failed to clear the high bar required for restrictions of First Amendment rights.
Missouri couldn’t produce convincing evidence that a ban was necessary to fight corruption – or that corruption was happening, the court ruled.
“Even if it has shown that lobbying is a common career choice for former government officials, more is required,” Judge David Stras, writing for a three-judge panel, said in the decision. “Missouri, after all, cannot have a compelling interest in solving a problem that it cannot prove exists.”
Miller and LaVanchy sued in December 2021 in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, alleging the ban violated the U.S. Constitution’s right to free speech and petition.
The ban kept Miller from accepting a lobbying job with the waste management company Presidio in November 2021, though his two-year waiting period has now expired. LaVanchy, who worked as a committee records specialist, was prohibited from paid lobbying under the Clean Missouri rules.
Cole Bradbury, an attorney for Miller and LaVanchy, said in an email that his clients were grateful that the appeals court recognized “Missouri cannot suppress speech on a whim.”
“The law was based on nothing more than the idea that ‘lobbying’ is bad. But as the Court recognized today, lobbying is protected by the First Amendment,” Bradbury said.
The appeals court decision came more than a year after U.S. District Court Judge Douglas Harpool upheld the ban. Harpool ruled that the Clean Missouri restrictions were a proportional and narrow limit intended to combat quid pro quo corruption and the appearance of corruption.
