Is there something in the water???? Indiana proposal would allow some religious discrimination
Indiana lawmakers dipped their toes Monday into a national debate over the role religion should be allowed to play in business decisions.
A House committee narrowly approved a provision that would allow some state contractors to discriminate against employees based on religion.
The provision, which was slipped into an unrelated bill, quickly stirred controversy on social media. Within a few hours, House Speaker Brian Bosma announced the measure would be sent back to the House Ways and Means Committee for further discussion.
The flare-up unexpectedly thrust Indiana into a battle raging across the country over the rights of religiously conservative businesses. In Arizona, lawmakers have approved a measure that would allow businesses with strongly held religious beliefs to deny service to gays and lesbians, and two cases are pending before the U.S. Supreme Court in which religious business owners want their companies to be exempt from providing employee insurance coverage for contraception.
In Indiana, the change to Senate Bill 367, a property tax bill, would allow any school, college, or religious institution affiliated with a church to make employment decisions based on religion, even if they have a contract with the state.
As written, the provision would have broad implications, said Robert Katz, an Indiana University law professor who teaches on law and religion.
http://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2014/02/24/indiana-proposal-would-allow-some-religious-discrimination/5781659/
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