Project
Law, Rights, and Religion Project
Document Type
Report
Publication Date
1-2017
Abstract
Increasingly, the long-standing national commitment to equality is being undermined by competing claims to religious liberty. Advocates, politicians, and the media have all documented the “wave of religious-freedom bills” introduced in recent years, “almost all inspired by objections to homosexuality and same-sex marriage.” In the 2015-2016 legislative session, dozens of bills were introduced at the state and federal levels that would have created exemptions to otherwise generally applicable laws, including antidiscrimination protections, for persons whose sincerely held religious beliefs conflict with those laws. The most extreme version of these bills would allow religious objectors to engage in a wide range of harmful behavior, including denial of employment, housing, public benefits, and access to social services, free from legal consequences.
Disciplines
Civil Rights and Discrimination | Law | Religion Law
Recommended Citation
Public Rights/Private Conscience Project,
Unmarried and Unprotected: How Religious Liberty Bills Harm Pregnant People, Families, and Communities of Color,
(2017).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/gender_sexuality_law/20