A bill aimed at preventing foreign and religious laws from being enforced in Missouri was debated Thursday by the state House Government Efficiency Committee.
The “No Foreign Laws Act” was voted through the Senate unanimously earlier this month.
The legislation prevents state courts and administrative agencies from applying foreign and religious laws that contradict federal or Missouri laws or violate a person’s fundamental rights.
There are exceptions for corporations that voluntarily subject themselves to foreign law in certain business dealings.
The act also prevents international organizations such as the World Health Organization, the United Nations and the World Economic Forum from exercising power within Missouri.
The legislation was originally introduced with the title “No Shari’a Act,” referring to the religious law of Islam.
“There is a legislative process for a reason. There are separation of powers for a reason. There is the Supremacy Clause out there for a reason,” said state Sen. Nick Schroer, a Republican from Defiance sponsoring the bill.
“But yet, we still have legislators at the state, federal and local levels that are acquiescing and bending a knee, whether it’s to a foreign entity or third parties altogether, rather than utilizing the powers as they’re set out by our founders,” he said.
Schroer and other bill supporters pointed to the COVID-19 pandemic as a particular era where Missouri ran into issues with foreign laws being enforced, citing mask mandates and other pandemic-related precautions recommended by the World Health Organization.
“We saw during COVID-19 the way in which municipalities and counties across the state arbitrarily applied recommendations without utilizing the force of the legislative process within those bodies,” said state Rep. Darin Chappell, a Rogersville Republican. “It was oftentimes one individual declaring, ‘Thus it shall be.’”
Opponents of the bill called it unnecessary and worried that it could interfere with peoples’ ability to make private contracts and agreements.
“I’m concerned that we’re taking away people’s rights to actually decide for themselves how their own disputes among each other, in a private arbitration sense, would be settled,” said state Rep. Mark Boyko, a Democrat from Kirkwood.
Similar legislation has been proposed across the country at the state and federal levels.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed his state’s version of the bill into law earlier this month, and Texas’ “American Laws for American Courts” law has been in effect since 2017.
The Missouri legislature voted in 2013 to pass a previous version of the bill, also called the “No Foreign Laws Act.” It was vetoed by former Gov. Jay Nixon, who said the bill was “seeking to solve a problem that does not exist,” according to reporting by St. Louis Beacon.
