Thanks for the links, Chip. Interestingly, the sponsor of the legislation told a reporter a couple of days ago that he was planning to change the bill to address concerns like those laid out in your letter. Here's the relevant passage from the news report:
*** Mark Goldfeder, a law professor at Emory University who also is the senior fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion, said there is an easy fix. The bill could be amended to define a person as only a "natural person or religious organization," meaning only specific organizations, churches, temples and the like. Teasley plans to do just that. He told PolitiFact Georgia that he had heard of the claim about corporations being able to claim the exemption and put the question to legislative counsel. Like the outside scholars, the attorney for the Legislature agreed the measure would extend to businesses. Teasley said he plans to add the term "natural person" to the bill in a bid to achieve his original objective: Stop government overreach on an individual’s right to religious conscience. He said he plans that change in the next week. "This should not be a controversial bill," Teasley said. "This kind of thing used to bring Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals together, and I hope it can again." http://www.politifact.com/georgia/statements/2015/jan/21/jeff-graham/are-corporations-able-claim-religious-exemptions-u/ *** Question for those on the list who are following developments in Georgia more closely -- does this change really look like it might actually happen? If so, and if the bill passes, it would seem to be a major development in the debate over state RFRAs (and a development that I, quite frankly, would not have anticipated in the current political environment). - Jim On Fri, Jan 23, 2015 at 3:03 PM, Ira Lupu <icl...@law.gwu.edu> wrote: > The Georgia General Assembly is considering RFRA-type legislation. The > proposed Bill is here: > http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/en-US/display/20152016/HB/29. > ​ A group of legal scholars, including myself and others who post on this > list, have written a letter to Georgia political leaders, urging > significant revisions in the Bill to prevent it from becoming a license to > engage in invidious discrimination. A copy of our letter is available > here: > > http://www.georgiaunites.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Georgia-Religious-Freedom-Letter.pdf > . > > -- > Ira C. Lupu > F. Elwood & Eleanor Davis Professor of Law, Emeritus > George Washington University Law School > 2000 H St., NW > Washington, DC 20052 > (202)994-7053 > Co-author (with Professor Robert Tuttle) of "Secular Government, Religious > People" ( Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 2014)) > My SSRN papers are here: > http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=181272#reg > > _______________________________________________ > To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu > To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see > http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw > > Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as > private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are > posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or > wrongly) forward the messages to others. >
_______________________________________________ To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.
