Gov. Pence calls for clarification to RFRA by the end of week
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- Published: Tuesday, 31 March 2015 17:27
INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Gov. Mike Pence is calling for additional legislation to help clarify the controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act signed into law Thursday, and he wants it on his desk by the end of the week.
“I’ve come to the conclusion that it would be helpful to move legislation this week that makes it clear that this law does not give businesses the right to deny services to anyone,” Pence said Tuesday in a press conference. “We want to make it clear that Indiana is open for business.”
Pence said he and legislative leaders are still working out the content of the additional legislation.
The governor also said he thinks the issue with RFRA is not what the bill does, but rather how it is being perceived.
He said the additional legislation would be aimed at changing that perception so that Hoosiers and others who are concerned about the bill understand its intent.
“The intent of the law when President Clinton signed it, the intent of the law when I signed it, was to give the courts in our state the highest level of scrutiny in cases where people feel that their religious liberty is being infringed upon by government action,” Pence said.
Pence said he was “taken aback” by the extreme criticism the bill received, especially because a similar law is already in place at a federal level.
“I believe this is a clarification, but it’s also a fix,” Pence said. “It’s a fix of a bill that through mischaracterization and confusion has come to be greatly misunderstood.”
But, he also said he thinks some people are beginning to understand what he believes is the law’s intent.
“I think there is a growing public understanding that Indiana has passed a law here that mirrors the federal law that President Clinton signed, and it mirrors the laws and statutes of some 30 states,” Pence said.
Article writer Olivia Covington is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.
