From divorce to speed limits, Missouri's new laws take effect Friday

Jack Harvel, The Kansas City Star on Aug 27, 2026

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Missouri lawmakers considered over 3,000 laws during the latest legislative session, passing more than 100, and most are set to take effect Friday.

The state will have 81 new laws on the books. They include every nonbudget piece of legislation that wasn’t passed with an emergency clause or that required an earlier effective date.

The bills already in effect include two sweeping criminal justice bills and one modifying tax credits for historic buildings.

The only nonbudget laws that took effect before Friday were related to public safety and historic preservation.

Gov. Mike Kehoe, a Republican, didn’t use his veto pen on any single piece of legislation. His only use of the gubernatorial veto was to slash $53 million from the state budget and restrict an additional $441 million.

The legislation taking effect Friday ranges from noncontroversial measures clarifying that a woman can get divorced while pregnant to hot-button issues that passed along partisan lines, such as the establishment of the “Missouri Rangers,” a group of school security officers who aren’t active-duty police officers.

Divorce while pregnant

For years, a poorly worded statute led judges to believe that they couldn’t grant divorces to pregnant women. The statute required judges to record whether the wife was pregnant, leading some to interpret the requirement as a factor in granting or delaying divorce proceedings.

The bill was one of the first passed during the legislative session and passed unanimously in both chambers. Kehoe indicated it would be a top priority during the annual State of the State address in January.

Vice laws

Missouri passed a law requiring age verification for access to adult content online. The change isn’t new for Missourians and only codifies a rule Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway implemented in November.

After Hanaway implemented the rule, many of the most prominent online pornography companies stopped operating in the state.

Another bill will consider any hemp-derived products, including CBD and intoxicating hemp that falls outside of Missouri’s statutory definition of marijuana, as marijuana. Marijuana was specifically defined as containing a certain amount of “delta-9 THC,” which hemp companies have skirted with different intoxicating chemical compounds.

The law mirrors federal changes that redefine hemp and has the same implementation date, Nov. 12. But the Missouri bill would also delay implementation if the federal government does.

The U.S. Senate passed a spending bill that would have delayed the prohibition until Dec. 11, but the House hasn’t agreed.

Schools

Public schools, colleges and universities must define antisemitism and prohibit antisemitic conduct under a law passed earlier this year. The bill faced criticism for its use of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism. Critics warned it could chill speech critical of Israel.

Kenneth Stern, who drafted the IHRA definition of antisemitism, has opposed codifying the definition in hate speech laws.

Missouri lawmakers also approved a law that would allow school districts to hire people for security if they’ve passed a training course created by the state’s Police Officer Standards and Training Commission.

The “Missouri Rangers” program would create a training program covering law, firearms and active-shooter defense.

Speed limit increase

The Missouri Department of Transportation will be allowed to raise the speed limit on rural highways from 70 to 75 mph. MoDOT is evaluating which roads may be eligible for a speed limit increase based on traffic volume, crash history, road design and terrain.

No change in the speed limit will be made until MoDOT finishes its evaluation.

In for a penny

Missouri businesses will be allowed to round cash transactions to the nearest 5 cents starting Friday. The bill is a response to the federal government’s discontinuing production of pennies.

Elections

A broad election bill takes effect that allows people convicted of certain nonviolent felonies to vote after their release from prison but before they’ve completed probation or parole.

Some laws already in effect

Missouri passed three nonbudget laws under an emergency clause, allowing them to go into effect before Friday.

One is a 170-page bill that significantly changes juvenile justice procedures, mandates the amount of time served until someone becomes eligible for parole and allows counties to raise a 1% sales tax to fund a juvenile detention center.

The bill includes some provisions championed by Kansas City Democrats, such as Sen. Patty Lewis’s bill streamlining orders of protection for victims of domestic violence. It took effect June 12.

A controversial abortion bill, dubbed the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, won’t go into effect until 2027.

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