Worship What?

A push for a Michigan law to broaden

HARRY KIRSBAUM
StaffWriter

involves exempting prisoners from the
law's coverage. Correction officials say
they fear being inundated with frivolous
he fight for a new state law
claims or forced to sacrifice safety.
assuring religious freedom in
The Michigan Coalition for the Free
Michigan hit the usual speed
Exercise of Religion — a group of 20
bump in Lansing on Tuesday.
organizations, including the American
Speakers, including J. Brent Walker,
Civil Liberties Union, the Anti-
head of the national Coalition for the
Defamation League and the Jewish
Free Exercise of Religion,
Community Council of
urged the Michigan Senate
Metropolitan Detroit —
Judiciary Committee to
joined Walker, an ordained
approve a bill that increases
minister, in urging the com-
First Amendment rights to
mittee to pass the current ver-
religious protection. •
sion of the Michigan bill (HB
The committee delayed a
4376) with no exemptions.
vote on the Michigan
"Our feeling is that religious
Religious Freedom Restoration
freedom is the first freedom,"
Act (RFRA) until after the
said Walker, a member of the
November election. And if the J. Brent Wa lker
Supreme Court Bar and gen-
Legislature is not (-Ailed back
eral counsel for the
into session, the bill would have to be
Washington D.C.-based Baptist Joint
reintroduced when the new legislature
Committee on Public Affairs. "It's some-
convenes.
t hing that everybody enjoys. Just
So far, the debate on the idea has
because you committed a crime doesn't
dealt largely with theory and principle
mean that you no longer have the right
rather than specific incidents in which
t o practice your religion."
Michigan citizens said their religious
When the federal law was passed in
rights were abridged. Local employers
1 993, a similar attempt to amend the
and major institutions such as schools
1 aw to exclude prisoners was struck
and colleges say they already accommo-
d own, he added.
date the needs of workers or students to
Nonetheless, the Michigan
follow religious practice.
Department of Corrections wants pris-
The major point of current dissent
0 ners excluded because of security and

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State Laws

Blocks to religious freedom bills in California and

Washington (ITA)
state-by-state push to secure
broad protection for religious
practice has hit new road-
blocks.
California Gov. Pete Wilson has said
he will veto a new state religious free-
dom measure because it extends protec-
tion to prisoners. Similarly in Illinois,
Gov. Jim Edgar has said he will not sign
a religious freedom bill passed by the
legislature unless it is amended to
_
exclude prisoners.
In both cases the governors cited
security problems, saying the bills would
lead to prisoner demands for different
meals, work assignments and religious
paraphernalia that they said could be

A

converted into weapons. The veto
threats constitute a major setback to
efforts to put new state religious free-
dom statutes on the books.
Since last year, state lawmakers have
been working with a coalition of reli-
gious groups, including Jewish organiza-
tions, to craft legislation aimed at filling
the void left when the Supreme Court
invalidated the 1993 religious Freedom
Restoration Act, commonly known as
RFRA. In its opinion, the high court in
essence said it was unconstitutional for
Congress to dictate a standard for reli-
gious freedom to the states.
Seeking to adopt their own stan-
dards, the California and Illinois bills, as
well as similar bills pending in state leg-

