Two Bills Filed to Strengthen Rights of Conscience in Arkansas

Legislation, , ,

Two bills filed at the Arkansas Legislature would help strengthen protections for religious liberty and rights of conscience across the state.

Right now Arkansas has some of the best conscience protections in America.

In 2015 Gov. Hutchinson signed Arkansas’ Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law. In 2023 lawmakers passed additional legislation to further strengthen that good law.

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

Two bills filed this year would make these good laws even better.

H.B. 1615 by Rep. Robin Lundstrum (R — Elm Springs) and Sen. Gary Stubblefield (R — Branch) would ensure that faith-based adoption and foster care providers, 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.

S.B. 444 by Sen. Kim Hammer (R — Benton) and Rep. Lee Johnson (R — Greenwood) strengthens the healthcare workers’ rights of conscience law Arkansas passed in 2021. Among other things, this good bill adds whistleblower protections for healthcare workers, and it helps protect all medical professionals from having their rights of conscience violated.

If passed, these two bills would help Arkansas continue providing some of the best protections for religious liberty and 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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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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Good Bill Would Let Public Schools Provide Chaplain Services

Legislation,

New legislation would let public schools in Arkansas offer chaplain services.

S.B. 266 by Sen. Jim Dotson (R — Bentonville) and Rep. Harlan Breaux (R — Holiday Island) clarifies that public schools can adopt policies letting chaplains serve public school students and their families as well as public school employees.

The bill does not require public schools to provide chaplain services, but it does clarify that schools are free to adopt policies making chaplain services available if they want.

Under S.B. 266, school chaplains would be members of the clergy who serve as volunteers or as employees of the school district. Chaplains would be required to pass a background check, and students would not be able to receive chaplain services without parental consent.

America has a longstanding tradition of recognizing the valuable services that chaplains provide. In Arkansas, county sheriff offices employ chaplains to provide spiritual support to employees and to inmates. Hospitals like UAMS provide chaplain services to patients, employees, and their families.

Public schools should have the same freedom to make chaplain services available to their students, employees, and families as well. S.B. 266 is a good bill that will help do that.

You Can Read S.B. 266 Here.

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

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