Comment

Alabama's McClurkin, "Gohmert in a dress," pushing even more ultra-radical bills

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goddamnedfrank2/27/2014 5:04:20 pm PST

re: #290 Political Atheist

So you don’r see much worthwhile difference between what the media by and large told us about this legislation and what actual legal experts had to say it means?

Give me a specific example of the media misinformation? I see you and these pro-life biased experts repeating a raw, baseless assertion then shifting to a completely irrelevant comparison with the Kansas law. As far as I can tell these legal experts all have a similar pro-life cognitive bias and that this could easily why their analysis runs counter to a common sense reading of the legislation.

re: #297 Political Atheist

Actually, SB 1062 indeed does just that.
See my comment at littlegreenfootballs.com

Where does it say that? Explicit or inferred?

Explicit.

1. “Demonstrates” means meets the burdens of going forward with the
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7 evidence and of persuasion.
8 2. “Exercise of religion” means the PRACTICE OR OBSERVANCE OF
9 RELIGION, INCLUDING THE ability to act or refusal to act in a manner
10 substantially motivated by a religious belief, whether or not the exercise is
11 compulsory or central to a larger system of religious belief.
12 3. “Government” includes this state and any agency or political
13 subdivision of this state.
14 4. “Nonreligious assembly or institution” includes all membership
15 organizations, theaters, cultural centers, dance halls, fraternal orders,
16 amphitheaters and places of public assembly regardless of size that a
17 government or political subdivision allows to meet in a zoning district by
18 code or ordinance or by practice.
19 5. “Person” includes a religious assembly or institution ANY
20 INDIVIDUAL, ASSOCIATION, PARTNERSHIP, CORPORATION, CHURCH, RELIGIOUS ASSEMBLY
21 OR INSTITUTION, ESTATE, TRUST, FOUNDATION OR OTHER LEGAL ENTITY.

22 6. “Political subdivision” includes any county, city, including a
23 charter city, town, school district, municipal corporation or special
24 district, any board, commission or agency of a county, city, including a
25 charter city, town, school district, municipal corporation or special
26 district or any other local public agency.
27 7. “Religion-neutral zoning standards”:
28 (a) Means numerically definable standards such as maximum occupancy
29 codes, height restrictions, setbacks, fire codes, parking space requirements,
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capacity limitations and traffic congestion limitations.
(b) Does not include:
(i) Synergy with uses that a government holds as more desirable. (ii) The ability to raise tax revenues.
8. “Suitable alternate property” means a financially feasible property
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35 considering the person’s revenue sources and other financial obligations with
36 respect to the person’s exercise of religion and with relation to spending
37 that is in the same zoning district or in a contiguous area that the person
38 finds acceptable for conducting the person’s religious mission and that is
39 large enough to fully accommodate the current and projected seating capacity
40 requirements of the person in a manner that the person deems suitable for the
41 person’s religious mission.
42 9. “Unreasonable burden” means that a person is prevented from using
43 the person’s property in a manner that the person finds satisfactory to
44 fulfill the person’s religious mission.

Do the goddamned math and it adds up to any “individual, association, partnership, corporation … or institution, estate, trust, foundation or other legal entity” being free to “refuse to act” in any way that would “unreasonably burden” their religious sensibilities. Section 1 Subsection 9 defines that unreasonable burden solely according to the religious adherent’s own satisfaction.

Then go to Section 2 - D:

D. A person whose religious exercise is burdened in violation of this section may assert that violation as a claim or defense in a judicial proceeding, and obtain appropriate relief against a government REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THE GOVERNMENT IS A PARTY TO THE PROCEEDING. THE PERSON ASSERTING SUCH A CLAIM OR DEFENSE MAY OBTAIN APPROPRIATE RELIEF. A party who prevails in any action to enforce this article against a government shall recover attorney fees and costs.

So any party subject to such religiously based discrimination is automatically on the hook to pay the defendant’s legal costs if the court finds an affirmative defense under this law. And since the law is based on the inherently subjective standard of what the defendant “finds satisfactory to fulfill [their] religious mission,” the law effectively legalizes most forms of discrimination by private businesses as long as an assertion is made that the discrimination is rooted in a sincere religious practice / belief.