Section III Section 7

Constitution

Effective - 04 Dec 2020, 3 histories, see footnote   

  III Section 7.  Senate independent bipartisan citizens commission, appointment, duties, compensation — court actions, procedure. — (a)  Within sixty days after the population of this state is reported to the President for each decennial census of the United States, or within sixty days after a redistricting plan has been invalidated by a court of competent jurisdiction, the state committee and the congressional district committees of each of the two political parties casting the highest vote for governor at the last preceding general election shall meet and the members of each committee shall nominate, by a majority vote of the elected members of the committee present, provided that a majority of the elected members is present, members of their party, residents in that district, in the case of a congressional district committee, as nominees for the senate independent bipartisan citizens commission.  No party shall select more than one nominee from any one state legislative district.  The congressional district committees shall each submit to the governor their list of two elected nominees.  The state committees shall each submit to the governor their list of five elected nominees.  Within thirty days thereafter the governor shall appoint a senate independent bipartisan citizens commission consisting of two nominees from each list submitted by each state committee and one nominee from each list submitted by each congressional district committee, to redistrict the thirty-four senatorial districts and to establish the numbers and boundaries of said districts.  No person shall be appointed to both the house independent bipartisan citizens commission and the senate independent bipartisan citizens commission during the same redistricting cycle.

  If any committee fails to submit a list within such time, the governor shall appoint a member of his or her own choice from the political party of the committee failing to submit a list, provided that in the case of a congressional district committee failing to submit a list, the person appointed to the commission by the governor shall reside in the congressional district of such committee.

  Members of the commission shall be disqualified from holding office as members of the general assembly for four years following the date of the filing by the commission of its final redistricting plan.

  (b)  The commissioners so selected shall, on the fifteenth day, excluding Sundays and state holidays, after all members have been appointed, meet in the capitol building and proceed to organize by electing from their number a chairman, vice chairman and secretary.  The commission shall adopt an agenda establishing at least three hearing dates on which hearings open to the public shall be held to hear objections or testimony from interested persons.  A copy of the agenda shall be filed with the secretary of the senate within twenty-four hours after its adoption.  Executive meetings may be scheduled and held as often as the commission deems advisable.

  (c)  The senate independent bipartisan citizens commission shall redistrict the senate using the same methods and criteria as those required by subsection (b), section 3 of this Article for the redistricting of the house of representatives.

  (d)  Not later than five months after the appointment of the senate independent bipartisan citizens commission, the commission shall file with the secretary of state a tentative redistricting plan and map of the proposed districts and during the ensuing fifteen days shall hold such public hearings as may be necessary to hear objections or testimony of interested persons.  The commission shall make public the tentative redistricting plan and map of the proposed districts, as well as all demographic and partisan data used in the creation of the plan and map.

  (e)  Not later than six months after the appointment of the commission, the commission shall file with the secretary of state a final statement of the numbers and the boundaries of the districts together with a map of the districts, and no statement shall be valid unless approved by at least seven-tenths of the members.

  (f)  After the final statement is filed, senators shall be elected according to such districts until a new redistricting plan is made as provided in this section, except that if the final statement is not filed within six months of the time fixed for the appointment of the commission, the commission shall stand discharged and the senate shall be redistricted using the same methods and criteria as described in subsection (b) of section 3 of this Article by a commission of six members appointed from among the judges of the appellate courts of the state of Missouri by the state supreme court, a majority of whom shall sign and file its redistricting plan and map with the secretary of state within ninety days of the date of the discharge of the senate independent bipartisan citizens commission.  The judicial commission shall make public the tentative redistricting plan and map of the proposed districts, as well as all demographic and partisan data used in the creation of the plan and map.  Thereafter, senators shall be elected according to such districts until a redistricting plan is made as provided in this section.

  (g)  Each member of the commission shall receive as compensation fifteen dollars a day for each day the commission is in session, but not more than one thousand dollars, and, in addition, shall be reimbursed for his or her actual and necessary expenses incurred while serving as a member of the commission.

  (h)  No redistricting plan shall be subject to the referendum.

  (i)  Any action expressly or implicitly alleging that a redistricting plan violates this Constitution, federal law, or the United States Constitution shall be filed in the circuit court of Cole County and shall name the body that approved the challenged redistricting plan as a defendant.  Only an eligible Missouri voter who sustains an individual injury by virtue of residing in a district that exhibits the alleged violation, and whose injury is remedied by a differently drawn district, shall have standing.  If the court renders a judgment in which it finds that a completed redistricting plan exhibits the alleged violation, its judgment shall adjust only those districts, and only those parts of district boundaries, necessary to bring the map into compliance.  The supreme court shall have exclusive appellate jurisdiction upon the filing of a notice of appeal within ten days after the judgment has become final.

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Source: Const. of 1945 (Amended January 14, 1966) (Amended November 2, 1982) (Amended November 6, 2018) (Amended November 3, 2020)