Georgia is trying to follow in Arizona's footsteps.
Under the radar, the GOP and few Dems introduced House Bill 1023, or "The Preservation of Religious Freedom Act."
HB 1023 would exempts folks and businesses from any government action or legal proceeding that "directly or indirectly constrains, inhibits, curtails, or denies the exercise of religion by any person or that directly or indirectly pressures any person to engage in any action contrary to that person's exercise of religion."
This bill will be highly problematic and a bit confusing:
"(I)ndirectly inhibits ... indirectly pressures" -- that's incredibly broad language, and it opens the door to all kinds of unintended consequences. And it applies "whether or not the exercise is ... a central part or requirement of the person's religious tenets or beliefs." In short, it offers a means to evade almost any law that can plausibly be claimed to offend even a vague religious sensibility.This is clearly a carton of spoiled milk that will stink up the state!
More to come
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HB 1023 was amended to be the same as the US Religious Freedom Restoration Act passed in 1993 signed into law by President Clinton, championed by then Senator Joe Biden, introduced in the Senate by Senator Chuck Shumer. A virtual identical bill was passed in Illinois almost a decade ago. Then State Senator Barack Obama voted in favor of the Illinois version of what is now HB 1023. The controversy is fake. The discrimination against people of faith in GA is real. I am personally aware of no less than 23 instances of state officials abusing the religious freedoms of Georgians.
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