The Wild Hunt (https://wildhunt.org/tag/religious-freedom-restoration-act)
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report critiquing the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for its unclear and burdensome process for granting religious exemptions for psilocybin and other controlled substances.
In this week’s Pagan Community Notes: native prayer challenge in CA, TST looks to challenge Texas law, New statue in Scotland and more news.
In this week’s Pagan Community Notes: The Roman Religion group in Rome, Associazione Tradizionale Pietas, rekindles the Vestal flame, Chery Hill Seminary names professor of the year, Cherokee nation changes constitution, and more news.
After weeks of debate and protest, the show-down in the Copper State is finally over. Arizona Governor Jan Brewer vetoed State Bill 1062, the so-called anti-gay bill. With high stakes and increased pressure from corporations, Brewer had little choice but to object. On Feb. 26 she said:
I have not heard of one example in Arizona where business owners’ religious liberty has been violated … The bill is broadly worded, and could result in unintended and negative consequences.
It is official. This July Kentucky’s brand new Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) will go into effect. The state’s legislature put its final stamp of approval on the bill when it overturned, by a wide margin, Governor Steve Beshear’s veto on March 26th. Originally called House Bill 279 (HB279), Kentucky’s RFRA states:
Government shall not substantially burden a person’s freedom of religion. The right to act or refuse to act in a manner motivated by a sincerely held religious belief may not be substantially burdened unless the government proves by clear and convincing evidence that it has a compelling governmental interest in infringing the specific act or refusal to act and has used the least restrictive means to further that interest.