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A Clash of Freedoms in Indiana

By Clarence Page, Tribune Content Agency on

Neither side in the uproar over Indiana's "religious freedom restoration" law has been totally candid about its benefits or its dangers.

That often happens in politics, an arena in which it often seems that no statement is too good to be overstated.

For example, defenders of controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signed last week, are technically correct when they say the law is not the "license to discriminate" against gays and lesbians that the law's critics say it is.

After all, the new law basically says the government cannot intrude on a person's religious liberty unless it can prove a compelling interest to impose that burden and does it in the least restrictive way.

Yet Pence conspicuously ducked and dodged repeated attempts by ABC "This Week" host George Stephanopoulos to get a straight yes or no answer to this simple question: "If a florist in Indiana refuses to serve a gay couple at their wedding, is that legal now in Indiana?"

That question had to be a tough one for Pence to answer. Among other reasons, it does not take a legal scholar to notice how Indiana's law differs significantly from the federal and state laws that he claims have the same language as the one he signed.

 

Nineteen states and the federal government have passed such laws, Pence wrote in a Wall Street Journal essay after his ABC appearance. He also notes that President Barack Obama as a state senator "supported Illinois's version of the law in 1998."

"Indiana's new law contains no reference to sexual orientation. It simply mirrors federal law that President Bill Clinton signed in 1993," writes Pence

So why pick on Indiana? Well, Pence left out how much the Indiana law differs substantially from the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act, signed by President Bill Clinton in 1993, and all of the other state versions.

For one thing, Illinois, the feds and the other states that Pence mentioned have other laws to protect the rights of gays and lesbians. Indiana does not have similar statewide protections.

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(c) 2015 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.

 

 

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