For example, Parson, a cattle farmer, last year appointed Allen Rowland, of Dexter, to a vacant seat on the commission.

Rowland is a retired farmer, who has served on the Missouri Soybean Merchandising Council and has been involved with the Missouri Farm Bureau, Stoddard County Farm Bureau and Missouri Corn Growers Association.

Supporters of the change said it was needed because the general public doesn’t have the expertise to deal with complex clean water regulations.

Jeffery told the court the legislation was flawed because the provisions affecting the commission were tacked on to a different bill that was limited to other subjects as lawmakers scrambled to get the change on the books.

“It’s not broad enough,” Jeffery said of the bill’s original title.

The constitution says no bill can be amended to change its original purpose, and no bill can be about more than one subject, which must be in the title of the bill.

But assistant attorney general John Sauer called the 11th-hour legislative maneuver “perfectly acceptable.”

“It was a broad, umbrella topic,” he said of the title of the legislation.