Last week Arkansas made headlines for being named number one in the nation on religious liberty. The free exercise of religion is a fundamental right protected by state and federal law, and Arkansas has some of the best safeguards for religious liberty in the country. That is something to celebrate.
But one of the questions that comes up about religious liberty is how to protect the free exercise of religion without letting someone use that freedom to commit crimes or harm innocent people. Arkansas has at least two laws that navigate that issue very well.
The first is Arkansas’ Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which was passed in 2015 and made stronger in 2023 and 2025.
Over the past 200 years, courts have had to address situations where cult leaders wanted to commit crimes in the name of their religion, where cities and counties denied building permits to churches, and where conscientious objectors wanted to avoid military service during times of war.
In situations like these, courts traditionally asked two questions:
First, does the government have a “compelling interest” at stake in this situation—like providing for national defense or protecting people from violent crime?
And second, can the government protect that compelling interest without burdening someone’s free exercise of religion?
Under this test, cult leaders who broke the law went to prison, conscientious objectors in the military were assigned to non-combat duties, and churches that were denied a building permit typically were allowed to build anyway.
Unfortunately, over the years, state and federal courts abandoned this standard and began issuing bad rulings that made it easier for the government to run roughshod over religious freedom—even when it did not have a compelling interest at stake or did not have to burden someone’s free exercise of religion. We have all heard stories of wedding venues, bakeries, photography studios, and florist shops taken to court because their owners wanted to operate according to their deeply held convictions. That’s a problem.
That’s why Arkansas has passed laws like its Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The law protects every person’s free exercise of religion except in serious situations where the government can demonstrate it has a compelling interest at stake. In those cases, the government may burden the free exercise of religion, but it must do so as little as possible.
Arkansas’ Religious Freedom Restoration Act is one of the best in the country, because it gives strong protections to religious liberty while still making it possible for our government to punish criminals and enforce other important laws.
The second law that Arkansas has passed is Act 980 of 2017. Act 980 protects religious freedom and other liberties while prohibiting courts from enforcing foreign systems of law, like Sharia Law. The government certainly has a compelling interest in preserving our basic liberties and the rule of law. Act 980 helps the State of Arkansas do that.
Arkansas has the very best religious freedom laws in the country. Family Council is committed to working with our friends in the Arkansas Legislature to keep it that way, and we plan to look into any other laws Arkansas may need to pass to properly safeguard the free exercise of religion in our state.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.
