SB1932 provides that it is an “unlawful practice” to sell consumer food items or goods, except “petroleum products,” for an “unconscionably high” price increase of “20% or more” in a “designated disaster area.”
The Senate passed SB1932 on April 4, 2025, by a vote of 41 to 7. We have assigned pluses to the nays because price-controls are blatantly unconstitutional. Price controls mean controlled profits, and controlled profits mean controlled products, controlled labor, and controlled people. As dishonest and manipulative tactics to control the economy, especially during a disaster, they forcibly deny the constitutionally protected property rights of both businesses and consumers by violating their freedom of association — preventing individuals from making purchases and transactions voluntarily, according to their own terms. Ignoring the basic economic principles of supply and demand, they create an unequal balance of wealth confiscation and redistribution, hindering consumers, even hard-hit disaster victims, from getting the best goods and services at the best prices. The Bill of Rights and 14th Amendment were written to safeguard American prosperity via free-market enterprise by ensuring that “No State” shall “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property.”
