A lawmaker in Maine has proposed a bill similar to the Religious Freedom Restoration Acts or RFRAs adopted in other US states.
According the Bangor Daily News (BDA), the bill is authored by Sen. David Burns and titled "An Act to Enact the Preservation of Religious Freedom Act".
It aims to prohibit the "state, county and municipal" governments from indirectly or directly putting substantial burden on any person's free exercise of religion unless required by compelling governmental interest.
The Act would also empower individuals to pursue legal action if they felt that the government was exerting pressure on their religious freedoms, or to use those freedoms as a defense if faced with a suit themselves.
The wording of the Act is similar to the controversial RFRAs that were passed in Indiana and Arizona.
Indiana's RFRA was signed into law by State Governor Mike Pence on March 27. After critics cried foul over possible widespread discrimination from the RFRA, Gov. Pence amended the law on April 2 to specifically prohibit discrimination against the LGBT community in businesses and workplaces.
Arizona's RFRA was not signed into law by Governor Asa Hutchinson, who declared on April 2 that the Act does not conform with federal law and must be duly amended before he signs it.
A representative for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in Maine criticised the bill.
"We have good laws that protect the exercise of religion. The goal of [bills like this]... is ... to let people get out of compliance with nondiscrimination laws," Oamshri Amarasingham, public policy counsel for the ACLU of Maine, told BDN last week.
Carroll Conley, executive director of the Christian Civic League of Maine, told BDN that Burns' law is not about discrimination. Conley argued that the law limits the government's ability to infringe on people's religious freedoms to "when it's absolutely necessary".
