American Civil Liberties Union

The petition considered in this case is one of a series of anti-affirmative action initiatives being forwarded in 5 states for the fall of 2008, but was deceptively billed by its sponsors as a ban on "discrimination" and "preferences." Missouri's Secretary of State revised the ballot title to notify voters of the petition's likely impact on affirmative action. In this ruling, the Circuit Court upholds the use of the phrase "affirmative action" but nonetheless revises the certified title of the initiative.