Religious Freedom

1. What does the Indiana RFRA say?

• The government can't intrude on a person's religious rights unless it has a compelling government interest and has to be the least intruding as possible.

2. In what way could this law possibly allow other forms of discrimination?

• It could allow other forms because it could protect employers, landlords, and business owners to discriminate against LGBT people on religious grounds.

3. Why did then Governor Mike Pence clarify his interpretation of the law?

• He clarified the law because he became the central figure in a civil rights battle.

4. What happened in the 1990 Supreme Court case that inspired the creation of the first RFRAs?

• They ruled that someone could be fired for using peyote during a Native American religious ceremony.

5. Why did "Advance America" support the new law?

• They support it because they say it would help Christian business owners (bakers, florists, photographers) to not be punished for refusing to "participate in homosexual marriage."

6. How did the Supreme Court use the federal RFRA to alter the regulations in the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)?

• They used it to exempt some employers from the birth control mandate.

7. What situation caused these two parties to end up in the Supreme Court?

• Craig and Mullins wanted to buy a cake from the bakery for a wedding reception but the owner, Phillips, refused on the grounds of his Christian beliefs and did not want to seem like he endorses homosexual marriage.

8. What was Craig and Mullins' argument in the case?

• They said that it was discrimination, citing a Colorado law that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation by public accommodations.

9. How did Phillips defend his actions?

• Phillips says that he is not discriminating against homosexual couples because he would have served them nonwedding goods, and that by baking the cake then he would be forced to celebrate something he is opposed to which he says violates the first amendment.

10. How do we know that the Trump administration supported Phillips in this case?

• The DOJ filed a friend-of-the-court brief to support the bakery.

11. How do Phillips and his attorneys argue that the wedding cake is different than normal services he provides?

• They say that it forces him to condone something that he is fundamentally against (homosexual marriage) while the other services are not representative of the sanctity of marriage.

12. What do Colorado state laws say that might protect Craig and Mullins?

• The Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act says that it’s "unlawful to deny goods or services to someone due to their disability, race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, or ancestry."