GOP lawmakers are once again using Christian ideology as a weapon, undermining the Constitution in the process.
Today Senate Judiciary voted to advance HB1615, a bill that undermines the US Constitution. Unsurprisingly, lawmakers are using “religious freedom” as a smokescreen to support the bill.
House Bill 1615, sponsored by Rep. Robin Lundstrum, is framed as a clarification of Arkansas’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act. But in truth, her bill is a deliberate attempt to write specific religious beliefs into state law — particularly around sex, gender, and marriage. If signed into law (which will surely happen), HB1615 will allow government officials and businesses to discriminate against LGBTQ+ Arkansans and other marginalized groups, all while claiming constitutional cover.
And HB1615 doesn’t just twist civil rights; it violates the U.S. Constitution.
Religious favoritism, not freedom
During committee, Senator Clarke Tucker aptly pointed out how some “religious freedom” advocates often conflate two separate sections of the First Amendment:
- Freedom exercise of religion – You can practice your faith freely.
- No establishment of religion – The government cannot promote or favor one religion over others.
As Senator Tucker stated, HB1615 blurs — or outright ignores — the second part.
By embedding specific religious views into law (like defining sex based on assigned-at-birth biology or marriage as only between a man and a woman), the government is no longer just protecting religious expression. It’s enforcing a particular religious worldview — and that, by definition, is establishment of religion.
Personal belief or state-sanctioned discrimination?
“There is a difference between ‘Because of my religious belief, the government cannot discriminate against me,’ and ‘My religious belief authorizes me to discriminate against other people.’” – Senator Clarke Tucker
The first part is constitutionally protected; the Constitution makes it clear that “Congress shall make no law… prohibiting the free exercise [of religion.]” The second part is constitutionally offensive. The Constitution states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,” but this is exactly what HB1615 aims to do.
The Arkansas Constitution already reflects this balance. And recently, voters rejected a similar measure at the ballot box that was refereed out of the legislature. That amendment would have enshrined these same ideas into our state constitution. But Arkansans said no.
It’s our opinion that HB1615 is not about protecting religious minorities or ensuring people can worship freely. If it were, lawmakers wouldn’t need to single out beliefs about gender and marriage in the bill’s language.
Rather, this bill is about embedding conservative Christian ideology into Arkansas law.
Power over principle
HB1615 is yet another example of how some Arkansas GOP lawmakers willingly undermining the U.S. Constitution to cater to a narrow and exclusionary political base of Christian evangelicals.
Under the guise of “protecting all religions equally,” these lawmakers advance a Christian nationalist agenda — one that places personal beliefs above the rule of law and weaponizes faith to deny others their First Amendment rights.
In other words, these legislators are behind state-sponsored discrimination.
And we deserve better; we deserve laws that protect everyone, not just those who share the majority’s paradigm.
