By Monica Hopkins, Executive Director, ACLU of Idaho
This week Representative Luker introduced two bills, HB426 and HB427, that would allow individuals to keep their professional licenses, even if they violated accepted standards of care or professional conduct and would allow individuals to use their religion to discriminate in employment, housing, business contracting and public services. We shouldn’t be surprised. With increasing frequency, we are seeing individuals and institutions claiming a right to discriminate – by refusing to provide services to women and LGBT people – based on religious objections.
Think about what passing these bills could mean. Doctors, lawyers, nurses, accountants, counselors, and teachers. The public expects, and is entitled to a certain level of professionalism and consistency when interacting with such licensed individuals. HB426 undermines the public health and safety by allowing an individual’s religious beliefs to govern the standard of care and professionalism.
HB427 is simply unnecessary. Idaho already has a law that requires courts to closely examine significant burdens on religious exercise—by the government. This law, on the other hand, will allow private individuals to use religion against other private individuals or businesses. This may become a nightmare for employers and business throughout our state, who may face a no-win situation.
Ultimately, this bill is not about protecting freedom of religion and aims to convince the public to care about an issue that is not a problem. Laws defending religious practice and freedom are already on the books. Idaho already has a Religious Freedom Restoration Act and laws that allow religious defenses in the professional license and religious land use contexts. In the end, it will only create a legal and bureaucratic mess during a time that Idaho businesses need to operate, without a constant threat of litigation, and grow our economy.
Instances of institutions and individuals claiming a right to discriminate in the name of religion aren’t new. In the 1960s, we saw institutions object to laws requiring integration in restaurants because of sincerely held beliefs that God wanted the races to be separate. We saw religiously affiliated universities refuse to admit students who engaged in interracial dating. In those cases, we recognized that requiring integration was not about violating religious liberty; it was about ensuring fairness. It is no different today.
Religious freedom in America means that we all have a right to our religious beliefs, but this does not give us the right to use our religion to discriminate against and impose those beliefs on others who do not share them.
You can contact your legislators, the House State Affairs Committee and Representative Luker to express your concerns about these bills. We encourage you to use our talking points on HB426 and HB427 in your communication with legislators.