🧨 Damage Report! This spring’s state/church wins and woes 🧨

By: Ryan Jayne, Senior Policy Counsel
Ryan Dudley, State Policy Manager
Mickey Dollens, Regional Governmental Affairs Manager

As many state legislative sessions wind down, it’s a good time to take stock of bills or newly passed laws threatening the constitutional separation between state and church. But don’t worry, we also have some good news to report!


California
Assembly Bill 67, to strengthen the state’s Reproductive Privacy Act, cleared the first hurdle this week when it passed the Assembly Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection. The Reproductive Privacy Act prohibits the state from interfering with reproductive rights and ensures access to reproductive health care. Under existing law, a person whose rights have been violated must bring the legal action themselves. This bill empowers the state attorney general to act against those who violate such rights.

Missouri
Missouri lawmakers in the “Show Me State” are pulling a textbook legislative bait-and-switch by pushing through Senate Bill 160. What started as a solid CROWN Act to ban hair discrimination was hijacked and logrolled with culture war junk, including anti-trans bathroom policies that reach into private schools. On May 5, it passed the House with 10 amendments. The Senate rejected those changes and sent it back to the House. SB 160 could fail if both chambers do not reach an agreement in the coming weeks. House Bill 875 could require colleges to fund bigoted student groups that discriminate against students based on religion, gender identity or political beliefs. FFRF Action Fund called it out for what it is and submitted testimony in opposition. 

Oklahoma
Oklahoma legislators attempted to do what North Dakota and Montana could not: pass a symbolic resolution declaring “Christ is King” in their state. Fortunately, after the House passed the resolution following lengthy debate, the Senate leadership determined that House Concurrent Resolution 1013 will not get a hearing in the Senate. This resolution was yet another attempt to prop up Christian nationalism in a state that has run rampant with it lately. We thank our advocates and other resisters for ensuring this resolution met its deserved demise.

Oregon
The Oregon Legislature is advancing a bill that would raise the minimum age to marry to 18, with no exceptions, including for religion. Oregon law currently allows children under 18 to marry with parental consent. FFRF Action Fund has long worked with Unchained At Last, a group that focuses on ending child marriage, a practice that is typically found in certain religious circles. Tell your representative that you want them to vote “yes” on Senate Bill 548 when it gets to them. You may click this link to access our Action Alert for the bill.

Tennessee
Tennessee’s general session has adjourned; unfortunately, three bad state/church bills made it over the finish line. Most significantly, the state enacted a new half-a-billion-dollar private school voucher scheme. Unlike some other programs, the measure’s sponsors don’t even deny that the program will primarily benefit the wealthiest families in the state that already send their children to private schools. At least they’re honest! An anti-LGBTQ medical discrimination bill also passed, as well as an absurd resolution designating the month of July as a time for “prayer and fasting.”

Texas
Everything’s bigger in Texas — including the theocratic overreach. Senate Bill 10, which would require Ten Commandments posters in every public school classroom, has cleared committee and is now headed to the House floor. FFRF Action Fund submitted testimony in opposition and issued an action alert to mobilize our Texas members. And then there’s HCR 59, which passed the House on May 1. It declares April as “Promise Month,” which translates to a 10-year-long government-sanctioned endorsement of Christianity with zero acknowledgement of religious diversity. The Freedom From Religion Foundation called it out in a public statement. 

Washington
We’ve been talking about this one for a while, so it only seems fitting to provide a final update on the bill to require clergy members to report child and sex abuse without a confessional loophole. Senate Bill 5375 was signed into law by Gov. Bob Ferguson on Friday. Before the governor signed the bill into law, clergy members were not required to report abuse learned of during confession. This is a huge win for victims of abuse! The bill, which FFRF Action Fund staff testified on behalf of twice, was strongly opposed by the Roman Catholic Church.

West Virginia
Two new laws in West Virginia will erode public school students’ right to a secular education. First, school boards will now be required to place the 1950s-era national motto, “In God We Trust,” in every public school in the state. Additionally, lawmakers passed a so-called “Parents Bill of Rights,” which gives parents sweeping power to interfere with the work of public schools, and threatens schools that try to push back with severe legal sanctions. This will force schools to choose between avoiding costly legal battles or doing what is in students’ best interest, and among many other potential issues, may allow zealous parents to censor school libraries based on the parents’ religious beliefs. 

Wisconsin
Wisconsin has been in a legislative standstill since 2019, with the majority party’s priorities almost entirely separate from the governor’s. As such, we’ve seen a plethora of bad bills that are doomed to be vetoed if they pass the Legislature — including an unfunded mandate to put “In God We Trust” in every public school classroom and anti-LGBTQ measures, as well as bills that would enshrine secular values that will unfortunately never receive votes. For instance, state Sen. Kelda Roys and state Rep. Lisa Subeck recently introduced a bill that sadly won’t pass. It would vastly expand reproductive freedom in Wisconsin, earning them the Action Fund’s illustrious “Secularist of the week” award. 

😳 I’m sorry, what?!
“Overturn Obergefell! In Obergefell, SCOTUS sowed the seeds of the supposed interchangeability of the sexes and we have reaped radical gender ideology ever since. It is time for SCOTUS to cease its war against nature and nature’s God. It is time to overturn Obergefell.” — Oklahoma state Sen. Dusty Deevers 

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