After Indiana furor, proposed religious freedom law in Georgia dies

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After 14 months of bitter wrangling, Georgias legislative session ended with lawmakers failing to pass a contentious religious freedom bill.

The defeat comes after a nationwide furor over similar legislation in Indiana and Arkansas. Opponents argued that the bill would provide a legal basis for discrimination against gays and lesbians. On Tuesday, demonstrators marched to the Capitol here, carrying signs reading, No discrimination in Georgia and We are not Indiana.

The proposed Religious Freedom Restoration Act would have forbid governments from infringing on a persons exercise of religion without compelling interest. It would have covered individuals and religious organizations, as well as companies with a small number of shareholders.

The bill was adopted by Georgia's Senate on March 5, then languished in the House. As gay rights activists rallied against the bill, a rift emerged in Georgia's GOP.

In the end, it was a Republican House member who scuppered the bill by adding language last week that would prevent it from being used as a defense for discrimination. The bills sponsors immediately tabled the proposal, and the legislative session ended Thursday.

In a telephone interview Friday, state Sen. Joshua McKoon vowed he would try to revive the bill next January. Weve got a handful of people made nervous by this smear campaign, he said. If we had had floor vote yesterday, Im confident it would have passed.

For Republican Gov. Nathan Deal, who had indicated he would support legislation that mirrored the 1993 federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the dispute over the bill had become too rancorous. On Thursday, he urged lawmakers who sought to revive the bill to stick to the language of the 1993 act and to include an anti-discrimination clause.

McKoon said he intended to hew to federal law and to resist adding what he described as unnecessary anti-discrimination language. Its a tempest in a teapot, he said. A handful of professional activists have done a fantastic job of misrepresenting what this legislation is about. If you want to get down to brass tacks: Are we going to see people denied medical treatment, or mistreated in any way? No. It's a firm no. Theres no gray area.

The federal religious freedom act applies only to the federal government, not to states and other local municipalities. Over the years, 21 states have passed their own versions of the law.

Opponents say this bill is going to allow people to discriminate in the name of religion, McKoon said. If thats the case, can you point to a single case when the statute was used to discriminate against someone?

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After Indiana furor, proposed religious freedom law in Georgia dies

Indiana, Arkansas, and other 'religious freedom' laws: Trouble for the GOP

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The governors of Indiana and Arkansas Republicans Mike Pence and Asa Hutchinson likely are spending Easter weekend wondering what they might have done to avert the adverse political wave that rolled them over this past week.

It was worse for Indianas Gov. Pence, who had to backtrack on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act hed just signed, calling on state legislators to clarify the law so that it no longer so obviously allowed for discrimination of gays and lesbians.

Arkansas Gov. Hutchinson, learning from Pences experience, quickly said hed veto that states RFRA bill unless lawmakers wrote in that same clarification. That his own son had signed a petition against the bill no doubt got his attention.

"The issue has become divisive because our nation remains split on how to balance the diversity of our culture with the traditions and firmly held religious convictions," Hutchison said at a press conference. "It has divided families, and there is clearly a generational gap on this issue. My son Seth signed the petition asking me, Dad, the governor, to veto this bill."

That generational gap was a clear point former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger made Friday in a Washington Post op-ed column excoriating his own Republican Party on the issue.

"As an American, Im incredibly concerned aboutwhat happened in Indiana this weekand thethreat of similar lawsbeing passed in other states, Mr. Schwarzenegger wrote. As a Republican, Im furious.

I know plenty of Republicans who are sensible and driven to solve problems for America. They believe in Reagans vision of a big tent where everyone is welcome. This message isnt for them, he wrote. It is for Republicans who choose the politics of division over policies that improve the lives of all of us. It is for Republicans who have decided to neglect the next generation of voters. It is for Republicans who are fighting for laws that fly in the face of equality and freedom.

"There are so many real problems that need solving. But distracting, divisive laws like the one Indiana initially passed arent just bad for the country, theyre also bad for our party, Schwarzenegger continued.In California, the GOP has seen the danger of focusing on the wrong issues. In 2007, Republicans made up nearly 35 percent of our registered voters. By 2009, ourshare droppedto 31 percent, andtoday, it is a measly 28 percent. That sharp drop started just after the divisive battle over Proposition 8 [which banned same-sex marriage]. Maybe thats a coincidence, but there is no question that our party is losing touch with our voters, especially with the younger ones who are growing the registration rolls.

(In 2013, the United States Supreme Court effectively killed Prop. 8.)

The struggle to balance religious freedoms with civil and personal rights continues in other states, where local and national businesses have become major players.

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Indiana, Arkansas, and other 'religious freedom' laws: Trouble for the GOP

Backlash against religious freedom laws helps gay rights in Indiana, Arkansas

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What began 20 years ago as a bipartisan drive to protect the rights of people to follow their faith against an overbearing government erupted this week into a divisive dispute over gay rights and religious freedom.

And the fracture can be traced back to two recent moves by the Supreme Court that set up an unusual legal crosscurrent between liberals and conservatives.

By overturning a key provision of the federal Defense of Marriage Act in 2013, the court set in motion a string of rulings across the nation that voided state laws banning same-sex marriage. By this June, a majority of justices is widely expected to legalize gay marriage nationwide.

At the same time, the Supreme Court ruled in another case last year that the family owners of the Hobby Lobby craft-store chain had a religious-liberty right to refuse to offer contraception coverage for its employees.

So while the marriage ruling opened the door for expanded protections for gays and lesbians, the Hobby Lobby decision offered new tools for those opposed to such moves.

Conservatives applauded the 5-4 Hobby Lobby ruling, which was based on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act signed by President Clinton in 1993. The law originally aimed to protect the Amish, Native Americans and others whose religious practices ran afoul of local or state laws says the "government shall not substantially burden a person's exercise of religion."

But the court's conservative majority defined "person" to include profit-making companies. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, speaking for the liberal dissenters, called it a "decision of startling breadth" that gives "commercial enterprises, including corporations" a right to ignore laws that conflict with their owners' religious views.

Armed with the Hobby Lobby ruling and concerned that their statewide bans against same-sex marriage were in danger, conservative lawmakers in Indiana, Arkansas and other states adopted their own versions of the federal religious-freedom law.

Some conservatives hoped the 1993 law would protect religious-minded individuals and businesses from legal mandates on gay marriage that they said would violate their faith. The most commonly cited example was a religious baker who did not want to be forced to make a cake for a gay wedding.

Using the Hobby Lobby precedent, some states broadened the scope of the federal religious-liberty law which dealt with conflicts between the government and individuals and defined a protected person to include a business, company or corporation. That small change created a large concern.

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Backlash against religious freedom laws helps gay rights in Indiana, Arkansas

Prosecutor fired after eugenics accusations

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(Photo: Wikimedia)

A Nashville prosecutor was let go this week amid reports that he requested some women undergo tubal ligation or maintain a birth control regimen as part of sentencing discussions.

Former Assistant District Attorney Brian Holmgren was fired from the Davidson County District Attorney's office after an investigative report found at least four cases in which the possibility of sterilisation was introduced in plea bargain talks.

The Associated Pressreported that Holmgren routinely asked mothers in abuse and neglect cases to take birth control, although the court cannot require a person to use contraceptives.

The Tennessean highlighted the case of Jasmine Randers - a 36-year-old who stabbed herself in the stomach while pregnant in 2004, and brought a deceased, five-day-old baby to a hospital in 2012. Randers was found not guilty of aggravated child neglect by reason of insanity and is currently in a metal institution.

Lawyers for Randers told District Attorney General Glenn Funk that Holmgren would not consent to a plea deal unless the defendant underwent tubal ligation. Funk removed Holmgren from the case and cut the deal.

The former ADA defended his methods in a recent interview.

"The likelihood that she would get pregnant again is high," he saidof the Randers case. "The likelihood that she would follow through on her court orders for medication is very, very low.

"And we already had two situations that suggest this was a significant risk. I wasn't willing to create a scenario that offered a third."

He also denied that he was fired over the controversial case.

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Prosecutor fired after eugenics accusations

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Open House on April 18 to Showcase Best of Physics and Astronomy

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Fun-filled event at UC Riverside for families includes hands-on activities, presentations and lab tours

By Iqbal Pittalwala on April 3, 2015

Standing on a rotatable platform, a visitor to a past Physics and Astronomy Open House at UC Riverside gets a hands-on education on a physical law called the principle of conservation of angular momentum. Photo credit: I. Pittalwala, UC Riverside.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. One way to understand concepts in physics and astronomy is to get hands-on experience with demonstrations that explain these concepts (see photo). The public has an opportunity to gain such experience at an open house hosted by the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Riverside on Saturday, April 18.

The open house will take place from 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the Physics Building on campus as well as in the buildings courtyard. The event is free of charge. Parking in Lot 30 is also free.

The demonstrations of physics and astronomy concepts will be conducted by UC Riverside faculty and students. Tours of research laboratories are also included in the open house. Free T-shirts will be given out to visitors (while supplies last).

Many of the demonstrations will cover electricity and magnetism, said Owen Long, a professor of physics and astronomy, who is leading the open house organization. For example, there will be demonstrations of the physics behind electric motors and electric generators. One of the hands-on activities will be to make a small electric motor which visitors can take home out of a battery, a magnet, and a piece of copper wire. There will also be a collection of demos on the physics of sound. The open house has been tremendously popular with families in past years; we are expecting a good turnout this year as well.

Included in the open house are three research presentations in classrooms and the lobby of Physics Building. These presentations, which start at 2 p.m., will cover the three main areas of research being done in the department: astronomy, condensed matter physics, and high energy physics.

The open house is on the same day as Highlander Day on campus and the Riverside Insect Fair in downtown Riverside. For more information about the open house, please click here or email owen.long@ucr.edu.

Archived under: Inside UCR, Science/Technology, astronomy, condensed matter physics, Department of Physics and Astronomy, electricity, high-energy physics, magnetism, open house, Owen Long, Physics and Astronomy, Physics and Astronomy Open House, sound

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Open House on April 18 to Showcase Best of Physics and Astronomy