Wed. Feb 21, 2024
HB 2381 (Rep. Chris Brown – R), the “Protecting Missouri’s Small Businesses Act” has been moved back the Formal Calendar for Perfection in the Missouri House of Representatives. This bill does not protect businesses, it simply empowers government to shut them down in the first place.
This bill would further government’s assertion that political subdivisions and agencies are within their authority to close private businesses in the case of an “emergency”, as they did during the Covid lockdowns in 2020.
That false assumption is reinforced by language like the highlighted sections below on pages 1 and 2.
Legislators think they can do anything UNLESS the Constitution says they can’t. Whenever legislators consider bills, they instead should be asking, “What is our authority to do this? What are we allowed to do?
“Health emergency” is not in the Constitution as being within their authority. We never gave government authority to close our businesses, deny us our livelihoods, take our property, lock us in our homes, deny us due process and equal protection of the laws. Read again the Bill of Rights which applies to the States through the 14th amendment.
The US and Missouri Constitutions are the best protection against government overreach and unlawful business closures that violate due process and equal protection of the law. The current and very old state of emergency statute in Missouri is very protective of people’s rights but was not followed during the state of emergency in 2020. The closing of private businesses that occurred were illegal and outside of government’s constitutional authority.
Those who write legislation like HB 2381 think they are helping, but they are making things worse. Bills like this reinforce the false assumption that the state and local governments can close businesses for emergencies. In return, government reduces license fees and real estate taxes for the time the business is shut down. That doesn’t compensate them for lost sales and fixed costs they bear to keep the business open.
Instead of writing deceptive bills like this, Missourians would be better served by our legislature studying what was done in 2020 and making sure government never does it again.
Call your Missouri House Rep TODAY and tell him or her to vote NO on HB 2381! Please do this ASAP. You can find your legislator here: https://house.mo.gov/legislatorlookup.aspx
IHC Legislative Team
ihcm.info
Whenever legislators consider bills, they instead should be asking, “What is our authority to do this? What are we allowed to do?
