New Report: Louisiana lacks Religious Protection

A new report from the Religious Liberty in the States project reviews each of the 50 states by what legal safeguards each state has in place to protect the religious liberties of their residents. The project was put on by the Center for Religion, Culture & Democracy, an organization with the goal of advancing the importance of religion as a public good to be defined and protected as an individual liberty. Louisiana's safeguards for religious freedoms landed at a surprising rank of 27th out of all 50 states.

The Religious Liberty in the States report ranked all states based on 7 main categories which break down into 16 sub-categories made up of safeguards for religious liberty. Out of the 39 items listed Louisiana only has 15 of those specific safeguards in place. Some of the safeguards Louisiana already has in place include clergy as mandatory reporters, ceremonial consumption of alcohol by minors, houses of worship protected from closing, and public students excused for religious observance. Some safeguards for religious freedom that Louisiana was found to be lacking include sterilization refusal for religious reasoning, contraceptive refusal for religious reasoning, excused absence from school for religious instruction, excused absences from public universities for religious observance, and no absentee voting for religious reasoning. After considering the weight of each item the Religious Liberty in the States project scores Louisiana's protection of religious liberties at 42%.

Illinois was placed in 1st for protection of religious liberties by the report, with a score of 80.4%. The protections Illinois fails to have in place include the refusal to perform an abortion in an emergency, the right for government officials, who may interact with marriage cases, to recuse themselves from participation in a wedding, protection for private businesses who take part in a religious wedding, and protection from closing for houses of worship.