Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — It's been more than 30 years since Congress passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, requiring that the federal government to clear the highest level of legal scrutiny before enacting any law that could infringe on personal religious liberty.
Although those protections apply to citizens of every state, Utah could become the latest state to enshrine religious liberty protections in code, after the state Senate voted unanimously to advance a version of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act on Tuesday morning.
Sponsored by Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, SB150 would apply strict legal scrutiny to any state law that potentially violates a person's deeply held religious beliefs, and prohibits the state from burdening a person's religious liberty "unless the burden is essential to furthering a compelling governmental interest and is the least restrictive means of furthering that interest."
"If Congress were to repeal religious freedom protections, this would give us a backstop on the state level," Weiler told the Senate Economic Development and Workforce Services Committee on Jan. 30.
Utah's bill is similar to religious freedom laws proposed or enacted by dozens of states, but it includes uncodified language Weiler said illustrates legislative intent that the bill not disrupt previous bills that attempt to balance religious freedom with other civil rights — including a ban on conversion therapy passed last year.
Equality Utah, the state's largest LGBTQ+ rights organization, said it initially had concerns that a version of the bill "would be used to override protections against discrimination for LGBTQ Utahns in housing and employment, and the ban on conversion therapy."
"These are two places in Utah code where Equality Utah worked with stakeholders and the Utah Legislature to carefully balance religious liberty with protections for the LGBTQ community," a statement from the organization's leadership said. "We are grateful the sponsor, Sen. Weiler, heard our concerns and incorporated language in the bill to make clear that the rights conferred in these previously enacted bills are preserved and protected."
Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, said the bill was "very delicately crafted," and told reporters he thinks it's "one of the best religious freedom bills in the country."
Weiler said the bill is intended to protect the rights of Utahns, regardless of faith. He used the state Driver License Division as an example, saying that if they limited hours to be open only on Saturdays, that would violate the rights of Orthodox Jews and Seventh-day Adventists, who recognize Saturday as a day of worship.
"This is not a bill for any one church," Weiler said. "This sets the highest constitutional standard (for a government) if its laws were impeding on someone's religious rights."
The bill would apply to all government entities including courts, counties, cities, schools and others. SB150 defines a substantial government burden as action that directly or indirectly "constrains, limits, or denies the free exercise of religion by a person; or compels a person to act, or fail to act, in a manner that is contrary to the person's free exercise of religion."
Burdensome government activity could include the following: "withholding a government benefit; assessing criminal, civil, or administrative penalties or damages; or excluding a person from a government program or from access to a government facility or service."
After passing the Senate, SB150 now heads to the House for consideration. If approved there and signed into law by the governor, it will go into effect on May 1.
