Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer’s veto of a bill allowing business owners to refuse service on religious grounds will make passage of similar laws in other states more difficult, both supporters and foes of such measures said.
“I’m not optimistic,” Georgia Republican state Sen. Josh Mc-Koon said of the bill he is sponsoring that is similar to Arizona’s failed legislation.
“I’m concerned that the hysteria and misinformation over this issue in general, and specifically what happened in Arizona, is going to make it more difficult to get this to the floor so we can have a debate.”
As of Thursday, the state Senate bill and a similar bill in Georgia’s House weren’t on the coming legislative calendar.
The Republican Arizona governor’s veto came after mounting public pressure from gay-rights groups, high-profile Republicans and large corporations, including Apple Inc., to kill the bill.
Civil rights groups argued the measure would be used as an excuse to discriminate against gays and lesbians. Proponents of the legislation said it merely clarified existing law in Arizona to include businesses, and would have allowed religious beliefs to be used a defense even when the government wasn’t a party to a legal proceeding.
The Arizona veto, as well as defeats in other states such as Kansas and Ohio, where similar bills have been tabled or killed, have “energized a lot of people to come out and speak against these bills,” said Jeff Graham, executive director of Georgia Equality, a gay-rights advocacy group.
He said the Arizona situation motivated businesses and people to publicly oppose the legislation “before waiting to see if it got to the governor’s office.”
In Georgia, the business community also has rallied against the legislation. Delta Air Lines and hotel company IHG have issued statements against the bill.
In Missouri, where a similar measure has been proposed, supporters said they are trying to figure out how to garner support in the wake of the Arizona veto.
“We’re going to work on developing some type of strategy and we’re asking, ‘Is what happened to Arizona going to happen here?’ ” said Kerry Messer, founder of the Missouri Family Network, which supports the bill.
Christopher Lund, associate professor of law at Wayne State University in Detroit said the failure of the Arizona bill doesn’t end the debate about when religious assertions of a business owner becomes discrimination. The “courts will still have to figure it out on their own,” he added.
Civil rights leaders who opposed the Arizona measure said its defeat gives them momentum to keep up the fight against similar measures elsewhere.
“Threats still remain,” said Eunice Rho, advocacy and policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, which opposes these bills. Ms. Rho said the ACLU will attempt to block similar legislation and ballot initiatives.
Arizona lawmakers said they don’t expect the bill to be reintroduced. “I don’t think you will see this issue revisited for a very long time,” said Arizona Rep. John Kavanagh, a Republican who voted for the legislation.
But Douglas Napier, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, a group that helped draft the bill, said: “Even though the battle has become more difficult…[we stand] ready to defend any Arizonan who suffers the indignity of religious discrimination.”
Nathan Sproul, a Republican political consultant based in Arizona, cautioned that neither side should read too much into the Arizona defeat.
“There is a definite possibility of the pro-gay-rights crowd overreaching,” he said. “Nationally, America right now is struggling with finding the right balance, and with making sure that everyone is protected, and yet cherishing religious freedoms, and that is the balance that this debate brings about.”
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