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INDIANAPOLIS, IN , February 11, 2015 ( LifeSiteNews.com ) -- Mike Pence , the Republican governor of Indiana , has come out in favor of a contentious proposal aimed at protecting the religious freedom rights of corporations and their owners. The legislation in question would prohibit state laws that "substantially burden" a person's ability to follow his or her religious beliefs.  The bill defines "person" not just as an individual, but also includes religious institutions, corporations, partnerships and associations.  Introduced in the aftermath of dozens of messy court battles over Obamacare ’s contraceptive mandate, which culminated in the Supreme Court’s  Hobby Lobby  decision , the bill would also protect business owners and companies who wish to abstain from participating in same-sex “weddings” and other actions that violate their sincerely held religious beliefs. In a short speech given to several hundred people at a rally in support of the bill, Gov...

March 3, 2014 ( FRC ) - At 680 words, Arizona 's  SB 1062  didn't take a yeoman's effort to read. But it was an effort, unfortunately, that few people bothered to make. If they had, the debate over the state's religious liberty measure would have been met by more yawns than pitchforks. Instead, Arizona's innocent attempt to tweak a law once embraced by the likes of Ted Kennedy turned into a blowup of national proportions. In a matter of days, liberal activists from across the country descended on Arizona and whipped up a frenzy of opposition based on what even liberal law professors called "egregious misrepresentations." The media's coverage stunned supporters of SB 1062, who wondered how the press could be talking about the same bill the legislature had just passed. To hear reporters tell it, the measure was a license for widespread discrimination -- when in reality, the only thing being discriminated against was the truth! All SB 1062 did was e...

February 28, 2014 ( Heritage ) - Cases have been popping up across the country where individuals have declined to bake cakes or take photos for same-sex wedding ceremonies—and government has punished them . This week, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer (R) vetoed a bill that would have put religious liberty protections in place in her state. We sat down with Ryan Anderson , Heritage’s William E. Simon Fellow in Religion and a Free Society , to get some answers about this debate. The Foundry: How did people’s beliefs about same-sex marriage become an issue for private businesses? Ryan Anderson: In New Mexico, a photographer declined to use her artistic talents to promote a same-sex ceremony because of her religious beliefs. The couple complained and the New Mexico Human Rights Commission ordered her to pay a fine of nearly $7,000. Christian adoption and foster-care agencies in Massachusetts, Illinois, and Washington, D.C., have been forced to stop providing those services because they b...

PHOENIX, AZ , February 27, 2014 ( LifeSiteNews.com ) – Facing an intense national campaign of media and economic pressure, Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed a bill that would have given Arizona business owners greater legal protections to exercise their faith in public. Senate Bill 1062  would have made it more difficult to sue business owners who refuse to participate in commerce that violates their religious convictions, such as making a cake for a same-sex “wedding.” “Senate Bill 1062 does not address a specific and present concern related to religious liberty in Arizona,” Brewer  said . “I have not heard of one example in Arizona where a business owner’s religious liberty has been violated.” However, lawsuits have been filed against a  Christian photographer in New Mexico ,  bakers in Colorado  and  Iowa , and an  elderly florist in Washington state  who refused to take part in same-sex ceremonies. Brewer obliquely referred to the ...

PHOENIX, AZ , February 26, 2014 – The backlash created by the  recent passage of Arizona’s SB 1092 , a bill to protect the religious freedom of business owners, continues to escalate as politicians, both Democrat and Republican, and various Arizonan businesses and public officials urge Governor Jan Brewer to veto the bill. Last week, SB 1062 was passed by Arizona’s legislature.  The bill protects business owners from lawsuits filed as a result of refusing their services to potential customers on the basis of religious belief.  This legislation has been blasted by both Republicans and Democrats as being discriminatory and biased, as it would allow business owners to deny working with and for same-sex “weddings.” Arizona’s Republican federal senators, John McCain and Jeff Flake ,  have declared their opposition to the bill .  “I know that the entire business community is galvanized, in a way that I’ve never seen, against this legislation,” said McCain...

Some have claimed that a bill recently passed by the Arizona legislature would give businesses broad license to not serve someone for being gay. This claim, though, may be a misreading, according a CP legislative analysis. While the bill is an attempt to broaden who is covered under its religious freedom protections, in all cases it actually narrows when a religious belief could be used to refuse service. Here are six important points to understand about the just-passed bill: 1. If Gov. Jan Brewer (R) signs it, the bill, S.B. 1062, would make some modifications to a 1999 Arizona law called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). 2. Under current Arizona law, if a business wanted to discriminate against gays, they would not need this bill to be passed to do so. It is not currently illegal for a business to deny service to someone because they are gay. Some cities in Arizona have ordinances against it but there is no state law against it. If business owners in Arizona wanted t...

PHOENIX, AZ , February 25, 2014 – In a move that has sparked antagonism from both Republicans and Democrats, the  Arizona state legislature passed a bill Thursday  that would grant business owners the right to refuse service to clients on the basis of religious objections. SB 1062  would provide business owners the grounds to deny their services to same-sex “marriages.” The bill, which now awaits the signature of Gov. Jan Brewer , has been lambasted as discriminatory by its opponents, but its defenders say it’s a necessary protection for religious freedom. In the past few years, there have been  several cases of business owners facing lawsuits after  refusing to provide their services  to  gay couples at their “weddings.”  This bill would prevent such suits from being filed in Arizona and would protect objecting business owners from facing heavy fines. This bill has a lion’s share of opponents. Both of Arizona’s federal senators, e...