Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Ryan RayOctober 21, 2015

Rep. Julio Gonzalez filed his first bill of the 2016 legislative year on Wednesday, and it was a doozy: a proposal to give immunity to certain businesses that don’t want to render certain services on grounds of “religious freedom,” including private child-placement agencies. Specifically, the bill amends the “Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1998” to read that […]

Martin DyckmanApril 6, 2015

The original Religious Freedom Restoration Act – RFRA for short – was intended to protect faith-based practices from unnecessary government interference. That’s the opposite of trying to use it to justify faith-based discrimination against others. But of course irony and hypocrisy are hardly strangers to politics. Congress enacted RFRA in 1993 in response to the […]

Mitch PerryApril 2, 2015

Tampa hosts the Womens’ Final Four college basketball tournament this weekend, and if Indiana doesn’t get its act together on its controversial religious freedom legislation the event could return to the Cigar City next year, if Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn has his way. “Sports teach us dedication, fair play and teamwork,” Buckhorn wrote to NCAA President […]

Mitch PerryApril 2, 2015

e’s lot of stories in the news this week about the Republican Party and social issues. Both Mike Pence in Indiana (considered a 2016 presidential possibility) and Asa Hutchison in Arkansas have asked for tweaks in their Religious Freedom Restoration Act bills, after the firestorm it’s created nationally, particularly amongst business groups. Another issue that […]

Bob SparksJuly 7, 2014

One week has now passed since the United States Supreme Court decided the case officially known as Burwell vs. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. (Hobby Lobby). A long explanation is unnecessary because if any reader is unfamiliar with this case, that reader will look no further anyway. The court created quite a dust-up. Most of the […]

Tag: Religious Freedom Restoration Act

“Religious freedom” bill to prevent gay adoptions refiled for 2016

Martin Dyckman: Religious freedom isn't license to discriminate

Bob Buckhorn makes play for Women’s Final Four in Tampa again next year

Mitch Perry Report for 4.2.15 — Florida Republicans and immigration

Bob Sparks: Rhetoric aside, Hobby Lobby workers still get contraception coverage