U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) spoke on the Senate floor earlier this week about his views on religious freedom.
Hatch is a member and former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and co-sponsored 1993’s original Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which passed the Senate in a decisive 97-3 vote.
“The attack on religious freedom today is not only misinformed about religious freedom in America and how laws such as RFRA protect that freedom, it is not only misguided in presenting religious freedom rather than discrimination as the real problem and RFRA as the culprit, but it is also misleading in broadly painting religious people as mean-spirited bigots,” Hatch said. “Neither the federal nor any state RFRA legalizes, permits or prohibits anything. RFRA sets a standard that government must meet when its actions burden the exercise of religion. Courts apply that standard in individual cases based on real facts to decide whether the religious practice or the government action is more important.”
Hatch lamented the evolution of religious freedom laws and how they have come to be viewed.
“How did we go from religious freedom being a fundamental and inalienable right to religious-freedom laws being attacked as un-American?” Hatch said. “How did we go from religious freedom being an essential human right that undergirds our nation’s very existence to activists calling laws that protect religious freedom dangerous and even contemptuous?”
Hatch’s speech can be read in its entirety at http://www.hatch.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/releases?ID=c50e3062-53b9-432b-bc7d-0c7eaa612445.