YOUR HANDY GUIDE TO GEORGIA’S RELIGIOUS FREEDOM BILLS
As of Friday, seven religious liberty bills have been introduced in the legislature, meaning that members of the Georgia General Assembly are debating on which religious freedom proposals are best for Georgians. As a result, we now have an overabundance of legislation of the “alphabet soup” variety with acronyms like RFRA and FADA, and names like the Pastor Protection Act and the Georgia Students Religious Liberties Act.
Even the casual observer of Georgia politics may not have the time to wade through this sea of legalese gobbledygook, but fear not, stalwart zpolitics reader – we have read these pieces of legislation for you! (Yes, you may thank us later.)
Below you’ll find a quick overview of all seven religious freedom-related bills in the Georgia General Assembly.
SB 129 – “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” (RFRA); Sponsor: Sen. Josh McKoon (R-Columbus)
Much notoriety, media coverage, and controversy surrounds SB 129, partially due to its embattled Senate sponsor and his impassioned defense of the bill on social media. Called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), this was the original religious freedom bill from which all others spawned. To understand the others, it’s helpful to understand this one.
Based on a 1993 federal law of the same name, this bill seeks to provide Georgians with the same protections on the state level, which the federal law does not cover. The essence of the law is that it is meant to protect against government overreach, establishing that the government “should not substantially burden religious exercise without compelling justification.”
Senator McKoon has insisted that SB 129 would not lead to discrimination of any kind, but opponents claim that it will open the door for “legalized discrimination” against LGBT Georgians.
Cue controversy.
HB 837 – “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” (RFRA); Sponsor: Rep. Ed Setzler (R-Acworth)
HB 837 is also entitled “Religious Freedom Restoration Act.” However, don’t confuse these three pages of fun with SB 129 (the other, more well-known RFRA bill sponsored by Senator McKoon). The basics are all here, though.
The main difference between Rep. Setzler’s version and Senator McKoon’s is the language. HB 837 says that the federal statute would apply to state and local governments, while SB 129 supposedly leaves more room for interpretation. Nothing much else to see here, moving right along.
HB 757 – “The Pastor Protection Act;” Sponsor: Rep. Kevin Tanner (R-Dawsonville)
Shakespeare once wrote that brevity is the soul of wit, and in just over 2 pages (a paragraph, really), the “Pastor Protection Act” is very brief. With the support of House Speaker David Ralston (R- Blue Ridge), HB 757 would protect a religious institution or organization from participating in religious or matrimonial services that violate their free exercise of religion under the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution. Easy peasy.
HB 756 – Sponsor: Rep. Kevin Tanner (R-Dawsonville)
Also sponsored by Representative Tanner, sans-snappy title, HB 756 is a short read, but takes full advantage of the page space in both pages of the legislation. In a nutshell, his bill would allow private business owners the ability to deny goods or services for a “matrimonial ceremony” based on a religious belief.
SB 284 – “First Amendment Defense Act” (FADA); Sponsor: Sen. Greg Kirk (R- Americus)
SB 284, also known as the “First Amendment Defense Act of Georgia,” seeks “to prohibit discriminatory action against a person who believes, speaks, or acts in accordance with a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction that marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman or that sexual relations are properly reserved to such marriage.”
Translation: it would protect individuals from performing actions that violate their religious beliefs. For that reason, FADA is also referred to as the “Kim Davis bill”.
HB 816 – “Georgia Student Religious Liberties Act;” Sponsor: Rep. Billy Mitchell (D- Stone Mountain)
Not only the longest of the aforementioned bills, clocking in at 8 pages, HB 816 is also the combo breaker for being sponsored by a Democrat.
Known as the “Georgia Student Religious Liberties Act,” HB 816 is basically the “let God back into the classroom” bill of 2016. It would protect students from penalty should they exercise religious expression in class, assignments, graduation, and other school activities.
HB 870 – Sponsor: Rep. Brian Strickland (R- McDonough)
While HB 816 aims to protect religious expression in schools, HB 870 would defend those freedoms on the field. The bill was introduced in response to a 2015 controversy in which a track championship winner was disqualified because he wore a headband with a bible verse. Additionally, it also seeks to protect small faith-based schools from being excluded from interschool play by public schools.
So there you have it, the zpolitics handy pocket guide to the plethora of religious liberty legislation currently floating around under the Gold Dome. 2016 will be a very interesting session to watch, especially as all these different religious freedom recipes coalesce and their respective cooks try to get to the table before the others.
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