Committees Pass Measures to Strengthen Rights of Conscience, Religious Liberty in Arkansas

Religious Freedom, ,

This week committees in the Arkansas House of Representatives backed two good bills protecting rights of conscience and the free exercise of religion.

In recent years, Arkansas has passed some of the best rights of conscience and religious freedom protections in the country.

In 2015, the state enacted its Religious Freedom Restoration Act. And lawmakers passed good bills in 2023 to further strengthen that law.

In 2021, Arkansas passed Act 462 protecting healthcare workers’ rights of conscience.

Before that law passed, Arkansas’ conscience protections were narrowly focused on abortion and end of life decisions, and they protected very few people. Act 462 helped broaden those protections and apply them to all healthcare workers.

On Tuesday, the House Judiciary Committee backed H.B. 1615 to further strengthen Arkansas’ protections concerning the free exercise of religion. This good bill by Rep. Robin Lundstrum (R — Elm Springs) and Sen. Gary Stubblefield (R — Branch) would ensure that religious organizations and religious individuals are not penalized for living out their deeply held religious convictions.

Time and again, wedding venues, bakeries, photography studios, florist shops, and others have been targeted by public officials and dragged into court simply because their owners wanted to operate according to their deeply held convictions.

H.B. 1615 will help prevent the government from burdening the free exercise of religion in Arkansas.

On Wednesday, the Senate Public Health Committee passed S.B. 444 by Sen. Kim Hammer (R — Benton) and Rep. Lee Johnson (R — Greenwood). This good bill improves the healthcare workers’ rights of conscience law Arkansas passed in 2021.

Among other things, S.B. 444 adds whistleblower protections for healthcare workers, and it helps protect all medical professionals from having their rights of conscience violated.

If H.B. 1615 and S.B. 444 pass this year, Arkansas law will continue to provide some of the best protections for religious liberty and medical rights of conscience in the country.

That would be something to celebrate.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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Arkansas House Passes Good Bill Affirming Religious Liberty at Public Schools

Religious Freedom,

On Wednesday the Arkansas House of Representatives passed S.B. 223, the Religious Rights at Public Schools Act of 2025.

This good bill by Sen. Mark Johnson (R — Little Rock) and Rep. Alyssa Brown (R — Heber Springs) affirms public school students’ and teachers’ religious liberties.

The bill identifies and upholds religious freedoms that are already protected by state and federal law — such as the right to pray, discuss religion, or read the Bible during free time at school.

The bill also helps make sure that religious expression is treated equally to other types of speech at school.

This will help prevent schools from squelching anyone’s religious liberties.

When it comes to religious liberty, public schools have been a battleground for more than 60 years. It’s important that we stand up for religious freedom at school. S.B. 223 is a good bill that helps do exactly that.

The bill now goes to the governor to be signed into law.

The Following Representatives Voted FOR S.B. 223

  • Achor
  • Andrews
  • Barker
  • Beaty Jr.
  • Beck
  • Bentley
  • S. Berry
  • Breaux
  • Brooks
  • A. Brown
  • K. Brown
  • M. Brown
  • N. Burkes
  • R. Burkes
  • Joey Carr
  • John Carr
  • Cavenaugh
  • Childress
  • C. Cooper
  • Cozart
  • Crawford
  • Dalby
  • Duffield
  • Duke
  • Eaton
  • Eaves
  • Eubanks
  • Furman
  • Gazaway
  • Gonzales
  • Gramlich
  • Hall
  • Hawk
  • Henley
  • Holcomb
  • Hollowell
  • Jean
  • L. Johnson
  • Ladyman
  • Long
  • Lundstrum
  • Lynch
  • Maddox
  • Magie
  • J. Mayberry
  • McAlindon
  • McClure
  • McCollum
  • M. McElroy
  • McGrew
  • B. McKenzie
  • McNair
  • S. Meeks
  • Milligan
  • J. Moore
  • K. Moore
  • Nazarenko
  • Painter
  • Pearce
  • Pilkington
  • Puryear
  • Ray
  • Richmond
  • Rose
  • Rye
  • M. Shepherd
  • Steimel
  • Torres
  • Tosh
  • Underwood
  • Unger
  • Vaught
  • Walker
  • Warren
  • Wing
  • Womack
  • Wooldridge
  • Wooten
  • Speaker Evans

The Following Representatives Voted AGAINST S.B. 223

  • F. Allen
  • Barnes
  • Barnett
  • Clowney
  • A. Collins
  • Ennett
  • K. Ferguson
  • D. Garner
  • Hudson
  • McCullough
  • Perry
  • J. Richardson
  • T. Shephard
  • Springer
  • Steele
  • D. Whitaker
  • Gonzales Worthen

The Following Representatives Did Not Vote

  • McGruder
  • Schulz
  • R. Scott Richardson
  • Wardlaw

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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JPMorgan Chase Moves to Prevent Political, Religious “Debanking”

Religious Freedom, ,

Fox News and our friends at Alliance Defending Freedom report that JPMorgan Chase is changing policies to prevent religious and conservative groups from being “debanked” over their views.

Fox News reports,

JPMorgan Chase has agreed to update their code of conduct to protect against religious and political discrimination, in what activists are calling a “major win” in the fight against debanking.

Debanking is the phenomenon in which a bank customer has their accounts canceled, often with no explanation. Conservatives have long alleged that banks were unfairly targeting them in the practice.

As part of the agreement, conservative group Alliance Defending Freedom has withdrawn a shareholder proposal brought by their client, Bowyer Research, calling for JPMorgan to issue a report on the risks associated “related to religious discrimination against employees.” In exchange, the bank has updated their Diversity & Inclusion section of their code of conduct to prohibit discrimination against “religious views,” and included language prohibiting discrimination against customers for their “political opinions.”

In recent years news outlets have reported how government policies encourage banks to designate conservative organizations as posing a “high risk” — giving the banks an excuse to close their accounts.

In 2021 Family Council’s credit card processor terminated our account after designating our organization as “high risk.” 

At 10:29 AM on Wednesday, July 7, 2021, our office received a terse email from our credit card processor — a company owned by JPMorgan Chase — saying, “Unfortunately, we can no longer support your business. We wish you all the luck in the future, and hope that you find a processor that better fits your payment processing needs.”

Within sixty seconds, our account was terminated and and Family Council could no longer accept donations online. All we can do is speculate that our conservative principles and our public policy work might have had something to do with the decision to close our account.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. Other organizations have had similar experiences as well. In fact, corporate shareholders, state attorneys general, congressmen, and news outlets all have expressed concerns over conservatives being wrongly labeled as “high risk” or “hate groups” and subsequently debanked.

Family Council is grateful to Alliance Defending Freedom and to everyone else who has stood up against debanking, and we appreciate JPMorgan Chase’s willingness to adopt new policies that protect people from debanking.

Banks that are too big to fail should also be too big to discriminate. Nobody should have their bank account closed for what they believe.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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