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ST. LOUIS — Sometimes juxtaposing debates that occur in the Missouri Legislature can provide clarity.

Take last week’s debate in the Missouri House over a bill sponsored by Rep. Ian Mackey, a Clayton Democrat, to combine St. Louis City and St. Louis County into one government.

It’s a long-discussed and controversial idea, sort of the of politics in St. Louis. Many politicians are afraid to touch it. Mackey’s bill would revive the failed Better Together proposal and ask the state to vote on the merger.

It will go nowhere. There is no consensus on it.

But the people who oppose it — and why — shed light on another controversial debate.

Here’s Rep. Brad Christ, a Republican from south St. Louis County, on why he doesn’t want to merge with the city: “I don’t want to be a part of those problems. I didn’t move there for that reason.�

Christ, of course, can live anywhere he wants. Like him, I live in the suburbs. But Christ’s comments carry special connotation: He’s the sponsor of the bill that would allow the state to take over the city’s police department.

Why would a man who is so dismissive of the city be so invested in who runs its police department?

Or take the comments of Gary Wiegert, a former city police officer who has become a Republican activist in west St. Louis County. “They are trying to force this on us and people do not want this,� Weigert said of the merger proposal. “People want to be able to determine their own fate.�

Exactly. That’s why last week, Megan Green, president of the city’s Board of Aldermen, sued the state in Cole County Circuit Court to stop the police takeover. It’s a move that no supporters would allow to be imposed in their communities. But they’re fine with taking away the voting and democracy rights of people who live in the city.

“For decades, St. Louis residents fought for control of our police department, and there’s no doubt that losing it will directly impact Black and Brown, LGBTQIA+, and immigrant communities,� Green said in a statement about her lawsuit. “And despite declining crime rates in our city, the General Assembly moved to negate the will of voters.�

Green’s lawsuit got off to a bumpy start. Filed in federal court initially, with the support of then-Mayor Tishaura O. Jones, it contained technical flaws called out by a judge. And when she took over leadership of the city in early April, Mayor Cara Spencer declined to support the lawsuit, suggesting it was rushed, even though her city counselor argued in court documents that there was merit in its arguments.

In St. Louis, there are always internecine politics being played among Democratic rivals. That’s what the Missouri Legislature depends on when it diminishes the power of city voters to control their own fates. Indeed, while trying to take over city police, Christ and his allies are simultaneously trying to restrict the earnings tax that helps pay for that very department.

It’s contradictory public policy. It’s also unconstitutional.

That’s one of the arguments Green makes in her lawsuit, filed by attorneys Chuck Hatfield and Brendan Roediger. The suit highlights common failures of the legislative process, especially the practice of loading unrelated topics into one “Christmas tree� of a bill to secure votes. And then a vague title, like “public safety,� is put on the bill to hide its true purpose.

The lawsuit also targets the practice of forcing spending decisions on local governments without providing money, and of passing legislation that affects only one city instead of the entire state.

But it’s a new provision in the state takeover bill that should most worry voters of all political persuasions, especially amid national concern about authoritarianism and trampling of free speech rights.

Imagine if the bipartisan citizen coalitions that have succeeded in passing initiative petitions — for worker rights, minimum wage increases, abortion rights, sick pay, ethics in government — included provisions to fine legislators who “impede, obstruct, hinder, or interfere� with the implementation of the laws passed by voters?

The ensuing First Amendment lawsuits by Republicans would fly off the shelves like toilet paper during a pandemic — and rightly so.

But that’s the exact language in the state police takeover bill, seeking to stop the city’s officials from doing what Green is doing right now: standing up for constituents. Regardless of your view on city police issues, that’s bad legislating. And, as both Green and Spencer’s lawyers agree, it’s ripe for judicial review.

“Left unchecked,� Green says, “my concern is that the General Assembly will continue undermining voters — St. Louis voters in particular.�

Green is making the same argument on local control that Wiegert is applying to a city-county merger. And that begs the question: Is it OK for legislators to tell St. Louis what to do while leaving other communities to “determine their own fate?�

Time for a judge to decide.