Hatch Speaks on the Importance of Protecting Religious Liberty
Washington, D.C.—Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, member and former Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, spoke on the Senate Floor today on the importance of religious freedom laws. In 1993, Senator Hatch wrote the original Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which passed in the Senate 97-3.
(Via YouTube)
A few excerpts:
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The attack on religious freedom today is not only misinformed about religious freedom in America and how laws such as RFRA protect that freedom, it is not only misguided in presenting religious freedom rather than discrimination as the real problem and RFRA as the culprit, but it is also misleading in broadly painting religious people as mean-spirited bigots.
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Neither the federal nor any state RFRA legalizes, permits, or prohibits anything. RFRA sets a standard that government must meet when its actions burden the exercise of religion. Courts apply that standard in individual cases based on real facts to decide whether the religious practice or the government action is more important.
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How did we go from religious freedom being a fundamental and inalienable right to religious freedom laws being attacked as un-American? How did we go from religious freedom being an essential human right that undergirds our nation’s very existence to activists calling laws that protect religious freedom dangerous and even contemptuous?
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In the very few situations in which religious freedom and discrimination might overlap, RFRA would actually be the way to sort out the conflict, the mechanism to balance these competing interests.
