Kansas Tries to Figure Out Its Own Religious Freedom Laws

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http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/sarahposner/7653/kansas_tries_to_figure_out_its_own_religious_freedom_laws/

March 5, 2014 5:13pm Kansas Tries to Figure Out Its Own Religious Freedom Laws Post by SARAH POSNER

Via the Kansas City Star, the Kansas State Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing tomorrow to answer the question: do our religious freedom laws adequately protect us from the gays?

I'm just kidding about that characterization, but after the failure of HB 2453, which would have permitted discrimination by business owners and government employees, conservatives in Kansas are still pressing for a modification of the state's religious freedom law. They say that law, passed last year, is inadequate to protect their religious freedom should the Supreme Court invalidate same-sex marriage bans.

The state's RFRA mirrors the language of the federal RFRA -- the same law at issue in the Hobby Lobby case before the Supreme Court -- and prohibits the government from imposing a substantial burden on a person's exercise of religion, unless it is in furtherance of a compelling government interest and is the least restrictive means of furthering that interest.

Republican Jeff King, chair of the Judiciary Committee, wants to examine Kansas's RFRA to determine whether any additional protections are warranted. "The answer might be that we don't need to go anywhere," he told the Star.

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