NOM, looking for #NY4M's last ditch, turns to familiar meme

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06/15/2011

by Jeremy Hooper

When reading the following, you should only know one thing: That even if the pro-equality caucus crafted a literal force field around every religious New Yorker, ensuring that no person of faith would ever have to so much as interact with someone with whom they disagree, let alone accept the same, then that still would not be good enough for their "religious freedom" desires. You should know that.

Now read:

“Andrew Cuomo’s last minute language, added without time for review in order to pick off GOP votes, clearly failed to protect many religious organizations and individuals. Groups including Catholic adoption agencies will be at risk and it will do nothing to protect the rights of parents concerning their children’s education,” said Brown.

“New York adoption and discrimination laws are particularly complex,” said Josh Baker, NOM’s legal analyst. “Without a very clear exemption, Catholic Charities is likely to be forced to shut adoption and foster care services due to the cost of litigation that would threaten its many other charities. This happened in Illinois, even though the bill’s own sponsor thought religious liberty would be protected. He was shocked to discover it wasn’t true. New York Senators cannot claim that ignorance if they vote yes on this bill.”

In addition, because the bill declares marriage a fundamental right, the interaction between that language and the religious liberty language is not clear and would have to be extensively litigated. (The consequences for the context for future litigation are also unclear.)

“Last minute fake religious liberty protection is not good enough,” said Brown. “GOP senators have been warned. Their conscience is now at stake.”
NOM's Warning To GOP Senators: A Vote For This Bill Will Endanger Catholic Adoption Agencies, Religious Liberty [NOM Blog]

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