JEFFERSON CITY • Missouri lawmakers on Wednesday failed to override two vetoes on measures that would have prevented foreign laws and a United Nations resolution from being applied in the state.
The Senate early Wednesday voted to override Gov. Jay Nixon, who vetoed both bills earlier this year. But the veto-override attempts both later died in the House.
Both bills addressed threats that critics claim are little more than right-wing boogeymen.
"It's an embarrassment to this state," Sen. Jamilah Nasheed, D-St. Louis, told her colleagues during Senate floor debate on one of the bills. "People around this country are able to see the extremism in this chamber."
One bill would have made it illegal for Missouri to enforce any foreign law or legal decision deemed “repugnant or inconsistent” with Missouri or U.S. law.
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Media coverage and critics of the bill have described it in the context of the U.S. anti-Sharia Law movement. In more than 20 states, conservatives have pushed measures to highlight alleged influences of Islamist Sharia religious law in America. Others maintain it's a non-issue that is merely being used to whip up anti-Muslim sentiment.
The Missouri bill didn't specify anything about Sharia law. The sponsor, Sen. Brian Nieves, R-Washington, angrily disputed in floor debate that that's what it was about, and that it's been "mischaracterized" by critics and the media.
Nieves insisted that the bill is merely meant to ensure "that in Missouri, we are not going to have court cases decided by using foreign law," regardless of where those laws might originate.
"This bill is not about Sharia Law. . . . it's not about islam, it's not about the Muslim culture," Nieves said.
At one point, he turned directly to media reporters in the Senate chamber and alleged that they "don't seem to be able to get this through their heads."
But Nasheed, the St. Louis Democrat, responded bluntly that she simply doesn't believe it's not part of the anti-Sharia Law movement.
"A blind man can see that it is. ... That's exactly what it's about," Nasheed said from the Senate floor. She called it "bigotry at its highest level."
"We don't have a problem with Muslims going into American courts trying to impose islamic law," said Nasheed, who is Muslim. "This (bill) is an attack on Islam and Muslims throughout America."
Nixon vetoed the bill in June, saying it could potentially complicate the process of foreign child adoption for Missouri parents. In his veto message, he said the bill seeks "a solution to problem that does not exist," while risking a "chilling effect" on those foreign adoptions.
Nieves, the sponsor, called the claim "patently absurd."
The other bill, also sponsored by Nieves, sought to block implementation of a non-binding United Nations plan called Agenda 21, adopted in 1992. It was meant to address issues of poverty, management of natural resources, and other goals. It doesn't have force of law United States, but has become a rallying point for conservatives who claim it's a potential infringement on Americans' property rights.
Nixon on Wednesday derided the measures as part of what he alleges was a pattern of political gamesmanship by the Legislature's ruling Republicans in this week's veto session.
"I don't see how you're going to build a strong economy on a fear of `Agenda 21' or Sharia law," he told reporters in the Statehouse.
The foreign laws bill is SB267. The Agenda 21 bill is SB265.
