Louisiana goes for broke with discrimination bill
By Steve Benen
As marriage equality takes root as the legal norm in much of the country, opponents of equal-marriage rights have adopted a new set of tactics. Whereas it was common a decade ago to see Republicans pushing anti-gay constitutional amendments – at the state and federal level – right-to-discriminate measures have clearly become the new weapon of choice.
Arizona generated national attention last year with its foray into this area, but a gubernatorial veto quickly ended the fight. This year, Indiana created a firestorm with its discrimination statute, which policymakers were soon after willing to “fix.” Arkansas scaled back its far-right drive in this area soon after.
But msnbc’s Jane C. Timm reported yesterday that Louisiana Republicans are plowing ahead with a related bill of their own.
“This Louisiana bill really does what people accused the Indiana law of doing,” leading religious freedom expert and University of Virginia law professor Doug Laycock told msnbc. While Indiana’s law offered up individuals accused of discrimination a legal defense that a judge could then weigh, Laycock explained, this law gives religious individuals absolute protection from state action, without balancing interests of – for instance – whether a gay individual’s right to services outweighs the religious individual’s freedoms.
Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), not surprisingly, told msnbc the proposal is “not about discriminating against anyone,” so much as it’s about “religious freedom.”
There’s ample evidence to the contrary.
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http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/louisiana-goes-broke-discrimination-bill
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