Setzler resurrects 'religious freedom' bill

Feb. 15—State Sen. Ed Setzler, R-Acworth, filed legislation this week he said would expand state religious protections to mirror those imposed by a 1993 federal law.

The Religious Freedom Restoration Act, SB 180, borrows from existing federal legislation on religious liberty, and renews the debate over constitutional rights nearly seven years after a previous bill was vetoed by former Gov. Nathan Deal.

"We can't ignore this any longer," Setzler said at a press conference Tuesday. "It's time to finally deal with this issue once and for all, in a substantive way."

Deal's decision to shoot down the legislation in 2016 came as LGBTQ rights activists said it would effectively legalize discrimination, as the bill would have allowed religious organizations to refuse service if doing so would violate their beliefs, among other measures.

"The biggest concern is that it allows business owners to turn away people that they disagree with, whether they disagree with what they look like, who they love, (their) religion," state Sen. Jason Esteves, D-Atlanta, said. "And that's counter to what most people believe, which is, you should be treating everyone with respect."

Georgia's business community — including the Cobb Chamber of Commerce — commended the veto by Deal.

Setzler's new bill enters the General Assembly with significant Republican support out of the gate, as 24 other GOP state senators have already co-signed the measure. Cobb's two other Republican state senators — Kay Kirkpatrick and John Albers — were not listed as co-sponsors. Both told the MDJ they had not reviewed the bill before it was filed.

A spokesperson for Gov. Brian Kemp did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Setzler, who supported the failed 2016 measure, said that bill "included language dramatically different than the federal (religious freedom) language."

The legislation Setzler introduced this week instead lifts from the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, which establishes two standards under which the government can infringe on a person's religious beliefs: first, if it is in a "compelling" interest of the government, and second, if it is the least restrictive way of furthering government's interest.

In 1997, however, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the federal law could not be enforced at the state level. Setzler said his bill looks to address that.

"Every Georgian should be free to exercise their religious faith," he said. "Without a state RFRA, Georgians do not have protection for religious expression."

The law, he said, isn't designed to favor one side or another in a question over religious expression, but to serve as a yardstick by which disputes can be evaluated in court.

Setzler pointed to the case of Simratpal Singh, an Army captain who won a court challenge allowing him to wear a beard and turban in accordance with his Sikh religion, as well as a Mennonite carpentry company that successfully sued against the Affordable Care Act's requirement that employers cover the cost of contraceptives for their employees.

(The latter case was ultimately consolidated by the Supreme Court with Hobby Lobby's challenge to the ACA contraceptive requirement.)

Esteves, meanwhile, said the legislature shouldn't be focusing on the issue right now.

"Any bill that allows someone to discriminate against someone else is not something that I think we should be focused on at this point," he added.

Jeff Graham, executive director of Georgia Equality, warned against any legislation that would empower discrimination against LGBTQ Georgians.

"While we can all agree that freedom of religion is a cornerstone of our beliefs, it is imperative that in an effort to protect religion that we do not create a license to discriminate," Graham said Thursday on Twitter.