Laughingstock? We have a national RFRA that passed Congress nearly unanimously and was signed into law by President Clinton in 1993. There are 29 other states that have an RFRA or constitutional provisions which require a compelling interest test for free exercise challenges. Is the entire national and those 29 states "laughingstocks" also? There is not a single case in 52 years that the RFRA (or its predecessor the Sherbert test) has been in place that it has ever invalidated an anti-discrimination law. Further, Indiana law only applies to GOVERNMENT infringement on religious liberty. Legal experts have repeatedly come forward explaining how the RFRA works and that it doesn't do the things opponents are saying and never has. Yet opponents of the measure continue to engage in deceit, demagoguery and over the top threats to try to win on an issue they clearly do not understand.
The pullout of conventions and business meetings has already begun. The reputation of Indiana as a bigoted state is bolstered (and, if Gov. Pence were so proud of the law, why did he sign it in secret, surrounded by nuns and lobbyists?). I say shame on Gov. Pence and shame on Hoosier legislators. Welcome to Indiana, Honest to Goodness, where it's always 1816.
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Laughingstock? We have a national RFRA that passed Congress nearly unanimously and was signed into law by President Clinton in 1993. There are 29 other states that have an RFRA or constitutional provisions which require a compelling interest test for free exercise challenges. Is the entire national and those 29 states "laughingstocks" also? There is not a single case in 52 years that the RFRA (or its predecessor the Sherbert test) has been in place that it has ever invalidated an anti-discrimination law. Further, Indiana law only applies to GOVERNMENT infringement on religious liberty. Legal experts have repeatedly come forward explaining how the RFRA works and that it doesn't do the things opponents are saying and never has. Yet opponents of the measure continue to engage in deceit, demagoguery and over the top threats to try to win on an issue they clearly do not understand.
The pullout of conventions and business meetings has already begun. The reputation of Indiana as a bigoted state is bolstered (and, if Gov. Pence were so proud of the law, why did he sign it in secret, surrounded by nuns and lobbyists?).
I say shame on Gov. Pence and shame on Hoosier legislators. Welcome to Indiana, Honest to Goodness, where it's always 1816.
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