Passage of Amendment 6 at November 5th Election will Eradicate Protections in place since Magna Carta

The Missouri Sheriffs' Retirement Fund leaders want voters to pass Amendment 6 to change the Missouri Constitution.  Passage would force litigants, including those charged with a traffic ticket, to pay for sheriffs' and prosecutors' retirement funds in addition to fines and court costs.  By passage of this Amendment, voters will be unwittingly destroying an iconic provision of the Missouri Constitution.

Magna Carta, and its progeny, including a Missouri Constitutional provision (taken directly from Magna Carta), prohibits governments from requiring litigants to pay unrelated fees added to court costs.

The Fund officials have enlisted elected prosecuting attorneys to join this scheme.  Passing a constitutional amendment to allow enactment of an insidious tax against unsuspecting litigants creates an incentive for sheriffs and prosecutors to bring criminal charges, not in the interest of public safety, but to fatten their retirement funds.

 

In 1986 and 2021, Missouri's Supreme Court ruled that litigants cannot constitutionally be forced to pay fees which have nothing to do with the suit a litigant has brought or is defending. The Fund officials seek to overrule the Court by amending the Constitution.

 

The Missouri Constitution has included an "Open Courts" or "Sale of Justice" clause since the first Constitution in 1820.  But 204 years ago, the prohibition forbidding litigants to be forced to pay unrelated fees was already 600 years old!  This iconic bedrock of western civil law had its origins in Magna Carta.

 

Magna Carta was forced upon England's King John in 1215 through petitions authored by exploited barons.  One was designed to stop the King from requiring payment of unrelated fees by litigants in the King's courts.  The King imposed exorbitant fees on litigants, above operational costs, to finance the Crusades.  The barons were then often impeded from seeking redress or defending their rights if they lost, and rebelled.

 

This "Sale of Justice" clause has remained recognized as a basic right of litigants since MagnaCarta.  In the nineteenth century, U.S. states, including Missouri, enacted provisions in their constitutions mimicking Magna Carta's famous prohibition.

 

The Fund officials want voters to believe that its Fund and the prosecutors' retirement fund are part of the "administration of justice" and constitutional- a falsehood.

 

Court costs are needed to maintain court operations.  Involuntary payments to sheriffs' or prosecutors' retirement funds have nothing to do with administrative costs.  Retirement money should be paid out of general revenues - not be hoisted on backs of people who seek redress in court or are hauled into court involuntarily.  This is a devious initiative by a group representing 114 elected sheriffs.

 

Abuse of court fees is not confined to Missouri.  In his 2015 address commemorating the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, England's Lord Chief Justice complained about the impact of mandatory court fees on cases.  He remarked that excessive court fees are a violation of Magna Carta.  That axiom survives today in the Missouri Constitution.  But not if voters allow the Fund to abolish this ancient principle.

 

The Fund wants to reverse 800 years of the most basic of civil rights afforded people–the unimpeded right to seek redress, or to defend oneself, in court, without paying extra fees for the privilege.

On November 5th, Missouri voters are asked to vote "yes" or "no" on Amendment 6:

 

"Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to provide that the administration of justice shall include the levying of costs and fees to support salaries and benefits for certain and former law enforcement personnel?"

 

"[C]ertain and former law enforcement personnel" were defined by an Appellate Court as including elected sheriffs and prosecutors.  Nowhere are voters told that upon passage they are authorizing the obliteration of part of Magna Carta.

 

Amendment 6 would enshrine into the Constitution a broader meaning of the term "the administration of justice."  It would permit legislators to authorize the imposition of unlimited court costs and fees to the benefit of former sheriffs, prosecuting attorneys and circuit attorneys.

 

Missouri's "Open Courts" provision ensures that justice is administered without impediments.  Amendment 6 would abandon that lofty ideal and give constitutional protection to the practice of taxation by citation.

 

Frank J. Vatterott, a graduate of Notre Dame and St. Louis U Law School and a Maryland Heights lawyer and retired municipal judge of 38 years, has fought the Sheriff's Retirement Fee applied to courts for many years.