The First Amendment Defense Act is nasty as hell
Full Details over at the Daily Beast
www.thedailybeast.com/…
text of the bill: www.congress.gov/…
In short, this bill would overturn Obergefell, Lawrence v Texas, Griswold, and with Griswold, it would take Roe with it.
FADA’s basic principle is that it’s not discrimination when businesses discriminate against LGBT people if they have a religious reason for doing so.
From Daily Beast’s summary:
But those stories are a red herring. The more important cases are ones like hospitals refusing to treat LGBT people (or their children), pharmacies refusing to fill birth control prescriptions, businesses refusing to offer health benefits to a same-sex partner, and state-funded adoption agencies refusing to place kids with gay families. Underneath the rhetorical BS, that’s what FADA is all about. First, the bill applies to any corporation, organization, or person who “believes or acts in accordance with a religious belief or moral conviction that marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman, or that sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage.”
Notice how broad that is: any business, agency, or individual, including government employees, hospitals, or huge businesses like Hobby Lobby or Chick-Fil-A. Old-age homes and hospices that turn away gay people – yes, this has actually happened – are covered. Hospitals that refuse a same-sex partner visitation rights – covered. National hotel chains that refuse to rent rooms to gay couples (or unmarried straight ones) – covered. And notice that it applies not just to religious beliefs about same-sex marriage, but also to sexual conduct in general. Translation: contraception, sex education, treatment of STDs – all of these are part of the bill. If a national pharmacy chain wants to refuse to fill prescriptions for the “morning after pill,” if a company wants to fire someone for being pregnant out of wedlock or becoming HIV positive, if a public school wants to stop teaching sex ed – all covered. And finally, since “moral conviction” is added in there, it doesn’t matter that Jesus never mentioned health insurance coverage. No actual religious grounds are necessary; just some moral conviction that the only allowable sex is sex within a heterosexual marriage.
The bill applies to any corporation, organization, or person who “believes or acts in accordance with a religious belief or moral conviction that marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman, or that sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage.”
FADA prohibits the federal government from doing anything about any of these acts.
Better yet: If a state’s laws are *Less strict* (like say, in California) FADA supersedes them, but if a state law is MORE strict (like, say, Mike Pence’s Indiana), the state law supersedes FADA.
The Federal Government could do nothing about any of the following actions:
- Federal Contractors can legally fire people for being gay (or transgender).
- A governor can order that, in his state, no clerk anywhere may certify a same-sex marriage.
- A company fires someone for being pregnant out of wedlock or becoming HIV positive.
- Hospitals that refuse a same-sex partner visitation rights.
- A restaurant or hotel posts a sign saying “NO FAGGOTS ALLOWED,”
- a company refuses to let a person take time off to take care of her same-sex partner in the hospital.
- a state-funded adoption agency refuses to place children with legally married same-sex couples.
- An employee at the Department of Veterans Affairs refuses to process a claim for survivor benefits for the same-sex spouse of a service member.
- Universities that turn away gay applicants, deny LGBT clubs, and fire all gay faculty and staff members.
- Any hospital or Doctor refusing to provide contraception, reproductive health care (including consultations of any kind), or health care of any kind to unmarried people or gay people, and not lose accreditation. (this includes drugs stores refusing to sell condoms.)
- You get fired for having (straight) premarital sex.
This law would overturn not just Obergefell, but Griswold (probably taking Roe with it), Lawrence v. Texas, and without much of a stretch, Loving v Virginia. Without needing a single lawsuit to be filed.
It would return LGBT to being a second class citizen at best, but also single women. Its so broad and discriminatory, that if it was about skin color instead of sex, it would re-legalize slavery!! with just a few tweaks, the same refusals could strike Muslims or Jews. Or Democrats.
And it has the support of the House, the Senate, and the President-Elect. And Trump gets at least 1, and maybe 4 Supreme Court nominees in the next four years.
a Democratic Filibuster (TRUE filibuster — where you actually just keep talking forever and ever — if the current 41 votes for cloture is nuked) is literally the only thing that would prevent this from becoming law. Especially when you consider that Trump has over 100 Federal Judiciary appointments and between 1 and 4 supreme court nods coming.
Can we stop asking about ‘Give him a chance?’
