The Senate today voted 22-9 (with the Senate’s unlikely statesman, Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson, arguing against passage) for Rep. Brandt Smith’s HB 1041, a religious discrimination law.
Here’s how it’s styled — American law for American courts, as if any problem exists. The preamble::
The General Assembly intends that it shall be the public policy of this state to protect its citizens from the application of foreign laws when the application of a foreign law will result in the violation of one (1) or more of the following fundamental rights, liberties, and privileges guaranteed by the Arkansas Constitution or the United States Constitution:
No Sharia law, in other words. Believe it or not, U.S. courts theoretically are already guided, first, by Arkansas and U.S. Constitutions.
But the law is more evil than that. Enumerated “rights” to be protected include:
The right to marry, as “marriage” is defined by the Arkansas Constitution, to the extent that the definition of marriage does not conflict with federal law or a holding by the United States Supreme Court.
You may remember the Arkansas Constitution contains an amendment that banned same-sex marriage. You may know that the Arkansas Supreme Court ducked a definitive ruling on its constitutionality, bailed out by the U.S. Supreme Court in a holding that such bans were unconstitutional. Hope springs eternal among the American Taliban of a court takeover that will upend the marriage equality ruling and who knows what else.
There’s more religious claptrap in the bill, meant I guess to create special rights for people of Smith’s religious persuasion.
It’s ugly stuff. Which means it’ll likely pass through the House, where it must go with an amendment, like corn through a goose. This is Arkansas.
Benji Hardy wrote at length earlier about the many objections to this bill.