Missouri High Court Restores Abortion Measure to Ballot
The New York Times
The court ruled hours before the state’s deadline for printing ballots for absentee voters, reversing the secretary of state who had invalidated the measure weeks after certifying it.
The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a bid to strike a question on the November ballot that will ask voters whether to establish a right to abortion in the State Constitution.
The seven-member court handed down its one-page ruling less than three hours before the state’s deadline for printing ballots for absentee voters. The ruling capped a furious few days of legal maneuvers, as anti-abortion groups and state Republicans made a last-ditch effort to stop the ballot amendment.
“Today’s decision is a victory for both direct democracy and reproductive freedom in Missouri,” Rachel Sweet, the campaign manager for the coalition backing the measure, Missourians for Constitutional Freedom. “This fight was not just about this amendment, it was about defending the integrity of the initiative petition process and ensuring that Missourians can shape their future directly.”
The four anti-abortion advocates who tried to strike the measure said in a statement that the court had “turned a blind eye” to their arguments that abortion-rights groups did not follow constitutional procedures when they circulated petitions to sponsor the amendment.
“The fight continues against the vile forces who have no regard for innocent life,” said the statement, signed by two activists, Peggy Forrest and Kathy Forck, and two Republican lawmakers, State Senator Mary Elizabeth Coleman and State Representative Hannah Kelly.
The measure, which the secretary of state certified in August, is one of 10 in states across the country that would establish protections for abortion like those that were identified in the federal Constitution in Roe v. Wade, which the United States Supreme Court overturned in 2022.
Run 3 Space | Play Space Running Game
Traffic Jam 3D | Online Racing Game
Duck Hunt | Play Old Classic Game
With little post-pandemic recovery, experts wonder if screen time and school absence are among the causes.
State Senator Zellnor Myrie, who was once pepper sprayed by the police, released a plan to hire 3,000 additional police officers.
Caroline Kennedy stepped out of the shadows and onto social media to assail her cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., on the eve of his Senate hearing.
Lorne Michaels reportedly dislikes when “Saturday Night Live” cast members break character. But over 50 seasons, it’s become one of the show’s signature moves — one that usually delights the audience.
Gov. Josh Green battled a measles outbreak that killed 83 people, mostly children. President Trump wants Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a vaccine skeptic, as his health policy chief.
The Trump administration sought to pause federal dollars to some grantees as it tries to uproot policies like diversity, equity and inclusion. Schools and universities worried important programs could be halted.
Jeal Sutherland, of Colonie, N.Y., hatched a deadly scheme with a convicted killer who was an F.B.I. informer, court documents say.
The former Trump adviser, who faces trial in March, said that he was singled out for his politics. He took aim at the district attorney in much the way the president has.
These parents believe in home-schooling and distrust food and drug companies. In Kennedy, they see “a bull in the china shop.”
The city laid out a series of proposals to reduce cancer deaths by 20 percent, and deaths from heart- and diabetes-related ailments by 5 percent, over the next five years.
In a special session on Monday, leaders seemed to be declaring their independence from a governor who has wielded so much power that legislative sessions have become largely predictable rubber stamps.
There were no Situation Room meetings and no quiet calls to de-escalate a dispute with an ally. Just threats, counterthreats, surrender and an indication of the president’s approach to Greenland and Panama.
A special session that began on Monday pairs disaster aid with two priorities for both the president and Gov. Bill Lee of Tennessee: tougher immigration laws and school vouchers.
Thomas J. Mascia scattered casings around and then shot himself in the leg in a bid for attention, prosecutors said.
Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York, an unabashed fan of the Buffalo Bills, was perhaps never more popular than on Sunday in downtown Albany.
The 14th Amendment overturned the 1857 decision that denied citizenship to Black people. Scholars say President Trump’s proposal betrays that history.
The bishop asked President Trump publicly to “have mercy,” electrifying some liberal churchgoers in an era dominated by conservative versions of Christianity.
Even more than in his first term, President Trump has mounted a fundamental challenge to the norms and expectations of what a president can and should do.