Friday, August 14, 2009
Attempts Being Made to Eradicate Equal Opportunity In Missouri
Hudson Valley Press Online: The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Eastern Missouri and the ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri today filed a lawsuit challenging the latest attempt by a political operative to rewrite Missouri's state constitution to ban equal opportunity programs in the state. Filed in the circuit court of Cole County, the lawsuit charges that the anti-affirmative action ballot initiative – the third of its kind proposed by Timothy Asher and his Missouri Civil Rights Initiative – should not be circulated for signatures because it violates the Missouri Constitution by seeking to trick and defraud Missouri voters in attempting to ban an array of equal opportunity programs.
"After failing twice to deceive the voters of our state into rolling back important programs that ensure that women and racial and ethnic minorities are given an equal chance to compete, the backers of this latest effort apparently hope that the third time is the charm," said Reginald T. Shuford, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Racial Justice Program. "But Missouri voters haven't been fooled by this deception before and they won't be fooled now." Missouri was one of three states – along with Arizona and Oklahoma – in which efforts to qualify anti-equal opportunity initiatives for the ballot during the 2008 election cycle failed. Asher spearheaded that effort in Missouri as well, when he worked as part of a largely unsuccessful national campaign targeting five states led by millionaire Californian Ward Connerly.
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