Indianas religious freedom law drew an attack Sunday from the White House even though Indiana Republicans say President Obama voted in favor of similar legislation as an Illinois state senator in 1998.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest didnt deny that Mr. Obama voted to pass the Illinois Religious Freedom Restoration Act but said the Indiana law appears to legitimize discrimination.

When you have a law like this one in Indiana that seems to legitimize discrimination, its important for everybody to stand up and speak out, Mr. Earnest said on ABCs This Week.

Meanwhile, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, a Republican who signed the bill last week, came out swinging Sunday against what he described as an avalanche of intolerance aimed at the legislation, which gay rights organizations say allows discrimination based on religious convictions against homosexuality. The law has led to numerous actual and threatened boycotts of the state, even though the federal government and 19 other states have such laws.

Is tolerance a two-way street or not? Theres a lot of talk about tolerance in this country today having to do with people on the left, Mr. Pence said. But here Indiana steps forward to protect the constitutional rights and privileges of freedom of religion for people of faith and families of faith in our state, and this avalanche of intolerance that has been poured on our state is just outrageous.

And Im not going to take it lying down, the governor said.

He noted that Indiana is something of a bandwagon-jumper when it comes to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Before Indiana, 19 states enacted similar laws, as did the federal government with the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act signed by President Clinton and passed with only a few opposition votes in Congress. Courts have extended religious freedom protections in another 11 states.

After Mr. Clinton signed the federal act in 1993, some 19 states followed that, and after last years Hobby Lobby case, Indiana properly brought the same version that then-state Sen. Barack Obama voted for in Illinois, Mr. Pence said.

Indiana Senate Republicans made the same point in a Thursday press release, saying, The bipartisan respect for religious freedom has also carried over to the votes for most state-level RFRAs. For example, when President Obama was an Illinois State Senator in 1998, he voted for Illinois RFRA.

Mr. Obama served as an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004. The Illinois act took effect in 1998.

See original here:

White House hits Indiana's religious freedom law amid criticism of Obama hypocrisy