Fayetteville leaders react to religious protection law

FAYETTEVILLE -- Supporters and opponents of Fayetteville's failed Civil Rights Administration ordinance had mixed feelings Friday about a religious protection bill Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed into law the previous day.

"It's a good bill," said Duncan Campbell, president of Repeal 119, the group that worked to overturn the city ordinance in a Dec. 9 special election. "It's a bill that actually helps to clarify the religious rights, the civil rights, of freedom of religion as stated in the U.S. Constitution."

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Go to the online version of this story at nwadg.com to read a copy of Senate Bill 975, which Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed into law Thursday.

Source: Staff Report

"It's the kind of bill I believe everybody should celebrate, including people who were on the other side of (Section) 119 (of City Code)," Campbell added.

Mayor Lioneld Jordan, a proponent of the Civil Rights Administration ordinance, said Senate Bill 975, which Hutchinson signed Thursday, was a vast improvement over a similar bill, House Bill 1228, proposed by Rep. Bob Ballinger, R-Hindsville.

But, Jordan added, "There's some vulnerable populations that I think it did not include. That's going to have to be addressed in the future."

SB975, which the Legislature swiftly approved Thursday after Hutchinson requested changes to HB1228, will prohibit the state or municipalities from enacting laws that infringe on people's religious beliefs, unless the government can demonstrate the laws have a "compelling" interest and use the "least restrictive means to achieve it."

By contrast, HB1228 could have been used as a legal protection in cases where there was no government action or law. It would have given individuals, corporations and religious institutions legal standing to file lawsuits against others if they felt their religious freedom was being impeded.

"What we were concerned about, in the Ballinger bill, was ... that you might use that language as a pretext to have one Arkansan discriminate against another," Steve Clark, president and CEO of the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce, said Friday.

Clark said because SB975 more closely resembles the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act, "we have no problem with it."

The chamber, like Jordan, issued a statement earlier in the week asking Hutchinson to veto HB1228.

When asked to reconcile his opposition to both HB1228 and the Civil Rights Administration Ordinance, Clark said, "We thought they were both poorly written pieces of legislation."

"We said, '119, this is a very poorly drafted proposal for policy in the form of an ordinance,'" he explained. "What we said with 1228 was, 'This is a very poorly drafted proposal for policy in the form of a state statute.' Bad for business both times."

Both Clark and Jordan said they would support modifying the Arkansas Civil Rights Act of 1993 to include sexual orientation and gender identity.

The state Civil Rights Act and federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibit discrimination in employment and places of public accommodation on the basis of someone's race, religion, gender or national origin, but they do not prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

That means an Arkansas employee can be fired from his job because he is gay, and a lesbian couple can be refused service at a restaurant with no legal recourse.

SB975 does nothing to change that. A statewide petition calling for an amendment to the Arkansas Civil Rights Act would.

Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge on Tuesday approved a popular name and ballot title for a measure that, if approved by a majority of voters next year, would add sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes under state law.

The initiative first has to get on the ballot. That requires signatures from an amount equal to 8 percent of the total number of people who voted for governor in the last general election.

Jordan said creating new protected classes is a good idea.

"I think everybody should be protected under state law the same," he said.

Clark said, "There should not be discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identification. We just don't believe that."

Campbell, with Repeal 119, disagreed with making additions to state law.

"I don't see the need for it," he said. "All the other protected classes are very specific. There's zero you can do to change change your color, your ethnicity or your national origin. The reason religion's put in there is because it's in the First Amendment of the Constitution."

Fayetteville's Civil Rights Administration ordinance, had it been upheld, would have prohibited local acts of discrimination in employment, housing and places of public accommodation on the basis on sexual orientation, gender identity and a number of other characteristics not contained in state or federal law.

After clearing the City Council on Aug. 20 with a 6-2 vote, the ordinance was repealed in the Dec. 9 special election. Roughly 52 percent, or 7,527, of the 14,580 residents who cast ballots in the election voted for repeal, while 48 percent, or 7,047, voted against repeal.

Going forward, cities and counties will be prohibited from enacting or enforcing similar laws extending protections to classes of people not contained in state law. The prohibition is embodied in Act 137, introduced by Sen. Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs, and passed by the state Legislature earlier this year.

NW News on 04/04/2015

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