Law Professor: Indiana’s Religious Freedom Law ‘Fix’ Could Cause Christians to be Jailed

03 Apr, 2015 by Warner Todd Huston

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After Indiana passed its freedom of religion law, liberals went mad with uninformed hate over the law and forced the state to make some tweaks to the law. But now that the “fixes” have been applied, a law professor is warning that the changes are dangerous and just might lead to Christians being sent to jail over their convictions.

This would be the absolute opposite of what the law was intended to do…

The greatly anticipated “fix” to the Indiana religious freedom law has been released by the Indiana legislative committee, and it is far worse than conservatives feared.

According to law professor Mark Rienzi, the new fix will allow the state to prosecute Christians criminally for denying gay weddings their professional affirmation.

Rienzi, of the Becket Fund and Catholic University School of Law and who was lead attorney in the Hobby Lobby Supreme Court case that upheld a claim under the federal religious freedom law, said this would “criminalize religious objectors.”

The “fix” maintains the religious liberty law in Indiana but says Christian business cannot use the law in declining to endorse a same-sex wedding. Christian business owners — florists, bakers, caterers and others — will now be forced to provide service for religious ceremonies that go against their “deeply held religious beliefs.” But the fix also says the law cannot establish a defense against not just civil actions but also “criminal prosecution.”

What a mess.