Legislative

We have lately become all too familiar with demands for religious exemptions from the contraception coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Now, the Equitable Access to Care and Health (EACH) Act, H.R. 2061, would carve out from the ACA a religious exemption of a different nature. The EACH Act would provide an exemption from the ACA’s individual insurance mandate for individuals with a religious objection to using certain medical care services.

The public (63%) does not support private school vouchers: every time a voucher program has been put to a vote in the past 45 years, the voters have rejected it. Despite this disapproval, Governors around the country are trying to push private school voucher policies through bills and state budgets.

This year’s saga of state Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) bills is nearing the end, but has not come to a complete stop, yet.  We continue to monitor RFRA bills in North Carolina and Michigan. Meanwhile, many other bills are moving through state legislatures and have been introduced in Congress that would allow religious beliefs to justify discrimination in adoption placements by state-funded, private adoption agencies.

We’ve been blogging a lot about state Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) bills that could potentially allow discrimination against the LGBT community in the name of religion. We have also been closely following a surge of “religious freedom” bills that would specifically permit individuals—and oftentimes government officials—to refuse to recognize, perform, or issue licenses for marriages.

In the States

Many so-called “religious freedom” bills are picking up steam in the states, while five more have hit roadblocks. Here are some quick updates:

In our last update on the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), we asked all of our members and supporters to reach out to their legislators and tell them to reject any amendment that would create private school vouchers. Thanks in large part to that effort, we won the private school voucher fight! However, we ended up with a very different church-state fight on the floor.

Private School Vouchers - A Win

The recent flood of state-level Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) bills continues. We oppose these bills because they could allow not just individuals, but also private corporations, to violate important laws—like non-discrimination, public safety, and public health protections—in the name of religion. This week there was both good news and bad news in the world of state RFRAs.

The good news

Several state legislatures are pushing Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) bills, which many have dubbed “licenses to discriminate.” These bills could allow people to disregard non-discrimination, public safety, and public health laws in the name of religion. Here are some recent updates from on state RFRA bills:

Indiana

Although the South Carolina legislature doesn’t officially convene until January 13^th, it has already pre-filed an onslaught of bills that could violate the separation of church and state.

Education

Legislators rushed the Michigan Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), HB 5958, through both the House Judiciary Committee and full House in a floor vote with little notice yesterday.