Indiana Lawmakers Drop Faith Exemption on Job Discrimination

An Indiana House committee nixed a proposal Tuesday to allow faith-affiliated nonprofits, including those with state contracts, to discriminate on the basis of religion in employment decisions, reversing course a day after approving the measure, the Indianapolis Star writes.

The Ways and Means Committee’s vote on Monday in favor of the provision, included in an unrelated bill, quickly set off a controversy on social media and briefly thrust Indiana to the front lines of the national debate over the role of religion in the workplace.

“I didn’t quite understand the firestorm it would create,” Rep. Eric Turner, the provision’s author, told the committee. He said his intent was to harmonize Indiana law with federal rules that allow contracts with faith groups that hire in part on the basis of religion.

An Indiana University law professor, Robert A. Katz, said the state proposal would have gone further, creating “a right to discriminate on the basis of religion for any position, even if it has nothing to do with the organization’s religious mission.”