Religious Freedom Restoration Act Faces Partisan Divide After Supreme Court Rulings

Demonstrators gather outside the City County Building on March 30, 2015 in Indianapolis, Indiana. The group called on the state house to roll back the controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which critics say can be used to discriminate against gays and lesbians. When the law was passed 30 years ago, it enjoyed widespread support. “People forget that RFRA passed unanimously in the House and 97-3 in the Senate,”  PHOTO BY AARON P.BERNSTEIN/GETTY IMAGES 

Three years after the Supreme Court ruled that Native Americans could not use peyote—an illegal hallucinogenic drug—in their rituals, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 barred government entities from “substantially burdening a person’s exercise of religion.”

When the law was passed 30 years ago, it enjoyed widespread support. “People forget that RFRA passed unanimously in the House and 97-3 in the Senate,” Douglas Laycock, distinguished professor of law emeritus at the University of Virginia, told Zenger News.