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Iowa House sends state Religious Freedom Restoration Act to governor • Iowa Capital Dispatch [1]
['Robin Opsahl', 'More From Author', '- February']
Date: 2024-03
Iowa is poised to join states including Georgia and Utah in passing a state version of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in 2024 as House lawmakers sent the legislation to Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds Thursday.
House lawmakers passed SF 2095 with a 61-33 vote. The legislation, similar to a 1993 federal law supported former President Bill Clinton and a Democrat-led Congress, would provide a higher legal standard be used in cases where a person claims that a government action has infringed on their ability to freely practice a religion.
Governments would be required to have a compelling interest, and be using the least restrictive means, to uphold an action that would “substantially burden” a person’s religious liberties.
Democrats in both chambers have criticized the legislation, known as RFRA, for potentially being used to justify discrimination against LGBTQ Iowans and other minority populations in the state. During the floor debate, Democratic Reps. Beth Wessel-Kroeschell, Lindsay James, and Megan Srinivas discussed cases in which religious liberties were invoked to justify refusal to provide services for LGBTQ individuals and refusal to provide reproductive health care medication.
House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst said the bill also would have a negative impact on Iowa’s economy, and could add to the state’s workforce shortage. Konfrst said business leaders in the state are opposed to the measure as it could be used to target businesses on the basis of religious beliefs. Businesses also fear the bill — and other measures supported by Republican lawmakers like those focused on LGBTQ individuals — make it more difficult to recruit and retain workers in Iowa.
“This bill hurts the communities that we serve, and this bill makes it harder for those businesses to do their job,” Konfrst said. “Nothing could be more relevant to this legislation than the impact it has on the people affected by it.”
The bill’s floor manager Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison, said Democrats were mischaracterizing the legislation. He said cases where RFRA was cited to allow for racial discrimination would fail in court. He pointed out that RFRA laws have been used in cases to protect marginalized populations, including a case where a court ruled that a school district violated a Native American kindergarten student’s religious liberties by punishing him for having long hair.
Holt said unless people have a desire to “rig the system against people of faith,” the proposal should not be controversial.
“Many of our nation’s earliest settlers came here to escape religious persecution,” Holt said. “In 2024, Iowans should be free to live and work according to their faith, without fear of being unjustly punished by the government. This legislation … guarantees only that everyone gets a fair day in court when the government intrudes on one of our most sacred freedoms.”
Reynolds released a statement supporting the bill’s passage Thursday evening.
“The right of religious freedom is endowed upon us by our creator — not government,” Reynolds said in a statement. “Our founders recognized this principle, and today the Iowa House took a step forward to protect it. Twenty-three states around the country, with both Republican and Democrat governors, have passed similar laws. Now, it’s Iowa’s turn.”
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