Missouri General Assembly passed SJR29, constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage

On May 14, 2004, the Missouri General Assembly gave final legislative passage to Senate Joint Resolution 29 (SJR29), sponsored by Sen. Sarah Steelman, proposing an amendment to the Missouri Constitution declaring that "only a marriage between a man and a woman will be valid and recognized in the state of Missouri" and barring legal recognition of any status for unmarried persons that approximated marriage. The Missouri Senate first passed SJR29 on March 1, 2004; the Missouri House of Representatives passed it on May 14, 2004, and the measure was certified as "Truly Agreed to and Finally Passed" by both chambers, sending it to the ballot as Amendment 2.

Under the Missouri Constitution, constitutional amendments referred by the General Assembly do not proceed to the governor for signature and are not subject to a gubernatorial veto — they pass directly to voters. SJR29 therefore bypassed the executive branch entirely, removing any possibility of executive review or remedy. The amendment was scheduled for the August 3, 2004 primary ballot.

The vote embedded a discriminatory definition of marriage in Missouri's foundational legal document, foreclosing any legislative or executive fix short of another constitutional amendment or federal judicial action. Missouri was one of more than a dozen states to refer similar marriage amendments to voters in 2004.

Updates

2004-08-03 — Missouri voters ratified Amendment 2, embedding the marriage ban in the state constitution [2]

Missouri voters approved Amendment 2 with approximately 71 percent in favor, ratifying the constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and cementing the discriminatory recognition bar in the state's foundational law.

2014-11-05 — St. Louis Circuit Court found Amendment 2 unconstitutional; licenses issued in St. Louis [3, 4]

Judge Rex M. Burlison of the St. Louis Circuit Court ruled that Amendment 2 violated the equal protection and due process guarantees of the U.S. Constitution and ordered state officials to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in St. Louis.

2014-11-07 — Federal district court struck down Amendment 2; Missouri appealed [5]

In Lawson v. Kelly, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri declared Amendment 2 unconstitutional, though Missouri appealed.

2015-06-26 — Obergefell v. Hodges invalidated Amendment 2 [7]

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry under the Fourteenth Amendment, invalidating Missouri's Amendment 2 and all remaining state same-sex marriage bans nationwide.