How Florida became America's leading religious-freedom defender under DeSantis: report

The Sunshine State ranks as the nation's number one defender of religious liberty out of all states according to the First Liberty Institute's fourth annual Religious Liberty in the States RLS index For the first time Florida tops the national rankings followed by Montana Illinois Ohio and Mississippi Illinois and Mississippi have garnered a spot in the top five every year since the index was first distributed by the First Liberty Institute's Center for Religion Custom Democracy CRCD in The index uses a detailed scoring system measuring legal protections and ranking states based on the percentage of accomplishable safeguards they have adopted This year with 's rankings nearly percentage points separates Florida from the last-place state West Virginia which has been last on the index for three years in a row PARENT GROUPS RELIGIOUS LIBERTY EXPERTS HAIL SCOTUS UPHOLDING PARENTS RIGHTS IN LGBTQ BOOKS MATTER We find that the states are laboratories of religious liberty where different protections for free exercise can be implemented and tested CRCD Executive Director Jordan Ballor wrote in an introduction for the index One of the major goals of the RLS project is to raise awareness of what different states are doing There are positive lessons to be learned from this experimentation as states that have been at the vanguard of protecting religious liberty can serve as exemplars for states that have lagged behind The index's accompanying statement points out that Florida is an exemplar for how state lawmakers can improve their protections around religious freedom According to the description the Sunshine State has improved nearly percentage points since the first RLS index was disclosed in Much of this improvement came from regulation passed in strengthening religious protections that allow healthcare providers to refuse to participate in anatomical procedures or services such as abortion or sterilization based on their religious or moral beliefs The review also pointed to Florida's passage of regulation in protecting houses of worship from discriminatory therapy during pandemics and other emergencies Florida holds several rankings leading the nation in instruction commercial sector and tourism and now Florida is in religious liberty declared Florida Gov Ron DeSantis We re grateful for this recognition from the First Liberty Institute which has just named Florida the number one state in the nation for protecting religious liberty PASTOR URGES TRUMP TO PROTECT RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AFTER ALLEGED BIDEN CRACKDOWNS This year s findings show clearly that states taking legislative action are pulling ahead added Kelly Shackelford president CEO and chief counsel at First Liberty Under the leadership of Gov DeSantis Florida passed real laws that protect real people and now the Sunshine State is the national leader in protecting religious liberty It s time for more states to follow Gov DeSantis s example and adopt strong religious liberty laws While Florida was pointed to in the RLS index as an exemplar the summary stated that religious freedom was becoming increasingly tenuous in the blue state of Illinois The move downward for the Land of Lincoln was not because the state repealed protections but mainly because it has not implemented new protections that other states like Florida have the description noted Per the RLS overview almost all of Illinois' protections came when the state was more conservative between and In an effort to demonstrate the dangers of complacency the statement also pointed to Colorado when Republicans routinely had control of both houses of the state legislature The climate was friendly toward religious liberty but lawmakers did not pass much in the way of protections according to the document It disclosed the state's complacency contributed to Colorado's abysmal rd-place finish in the RLS rankings and th finish in the rankings published Monday The First Liberty Institute noted the results of the polling may give several people the idea that passing laws protecting religious liberty is not as fundamental but the conservative Christian legal group warned this is emphatically not the circumstance noting that information shows passing such laws is just as critical amid a favorable political conditions