The Utah State Legislature is currently considering SB 150, a religious freedom bill sponsored by state Senator Todd Weiler. The bill would create a Utah version of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) . To help you become better informed on this bill, here is a brief history of the RFRA and an overview of what other state legislatures have done.

The History of RFRA

The Religious Freedom Restoration Act is a federal law originally passed in 1993 that prohibits federal law from causing undue burden on individuals exercising their religious freedom. Congress passed the law in response to a 1990 U.S. Supreme Court decision that weakened religious rights for less familiar religious practices.

In a later case in 1997, the Supreme Court ruled that RFRA protections only applied to federal law, not state or local law.

RFRA in Utah

Since the court’s 1997 ruling, 25 state legislatures have passed RFRA laws to provide state-level protection for religious exercise. Under Weiler’s bill, Utah would become the 26th.

“We hold religious freedom as a culture in Utah very close to our hearts,” Weiler said, regarding Utah not being a RFRA state. “I wanted to change that and make Utah one of the many RFRA states.”

The Utah version under SB150 would put a comprehensive law on the books that ensures the protection of religious minority beliefs and practices that legislators and others may be unfamiliar with. It essentially acts as a proactive “blanket” protection by giving state government a higher threshold of religious exercise protection.

In a recent opinion article with Deseret News, Sutherland Institute’s religious freedom and constitutional law policy fellow, Bill Duncan, wrote that “SB 150 creates an ideal framework for addressing unforeseen conflicts when they arise. It provides protection to religious exercise while still ensuring that the state can enforce laws that are necessary to protect the lives, health, and rights of third parties.”

Further Resources 

To learn more about RFRA, watch or listen to Sutherland’s podcast, Defending Ideas, with Weiler.

Interested to know which states have passed RFRA? View our map below. 

For a more in-depth perspective on this article, watch or listen to Sutherland’s podcast, Defending Ideas.