Eminent domain debate digresses, fails to sway
By KIT WAGAR
Apr. 13, 2006
The issues arose as House members grappled with what limits the legislature should put on the government’s ability to take private property when government officials think buying the property is in the public interest.
Rep. Belinda Harris, a Hillsboro Democrat, proposed an amendment to prohibit the government from using the power of eminent domain to force the sale of any house of worship. The amendment was approved, 154-0.
That prompted Rep. Mike Frame, a Eureka Democrat, to propose exempting any property used as a gun shop. He said such an exemption befitted businesses protected by the Second Amendment right to bear arms.
Rep. Shannon Cooper, a Clinton Republican who owns a gun store, said gun shops were not equivalent to churches and should not be placed in a special class exempt from rules that apply to all other businesses.
“I love my business, but the auto repair shop next door is just as important to its owner as my business is to me,” Cooper said. “If I lose my business (location), so be it. I’ll open somewhere else.”
As the debate raged, Harris rose and proposed expanding the gun-shop exemption. She suggested a ban on the government’s using eminent domain to acquire any property that would be used for research on early, also called embryonic, stem cells. Her proposal also would prohibit the acquisition of property where laboratory techniques known as somatic cell nuclear transfer would be used to artificially create early stem cells.
Rep. Bryan Stevenson, a Webb City Republican, said the bill already seemed to do that, because it prohibited the purchase of land solely for economic development. Such life science investments were always for economic development, he said.
Stevenson also questioned whether the amendment would block acquisition of property for a hospital, and it might ban fertility clinics from going into a development acquired through eminent domain.
Cooper called Harris’ proposal shortsighted. He said it was an attempt to block research that might lead to treatments for people who suffer from chronic diseases.
But Harris urged the House to support her ban. She warned members that the public and interest groups who oppose research on early stem cells would be watching their votes.
The House approved her proposal, voting 84-66 to attach it to the amendment that would shield gun shops from acquisition through eminent domain.
But it was all for naught. When the combined gun-shop and stem-cell amendment came up for a vote, it was defeated, 129-23.