The Human Rights Campaign is warning that a recently introduced Marriage and Conscience Act in Louisiana is actually worse than similar religious freedom bills in Indiana and Arkansas that received national criticism.
The Louisiana bill was introduced by state Rep. Mike Johnson (R) and has already received the support of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), who also supported the Arkansas and Indiana bills.
Human Rights Campaign (HRC) legal director Sarah Warbelow warned that the Louisiana bill “flat out gives individuals a right to discriminate.”
“This bill is worse than any RFRA [Religious Freedom Restoration Act] in that it explicitly allows discrimination based on an individual’s religious beliefs about marriage,” Warbelow said in a statement. “Nobody gets to go into court for a balancing test, there’s no interpretation by a state judicial system. It flat out gives individuals a right to discriminate, period.”
The Louisiana bill lets businesses refuse to recognize same-sex marriage. Notably, it would also allow a business to not offer benefits to employees who are married to someone of the same sex if the business owner has religious objections.
