Posted on 10/16/2017 11:36:30 AM PDT by Morgana
California Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed legislation Sunday that could have forced churches, Christian schools and pro-life organizations to employ abortion supporters.
California Assembly Bill 569 would have prohibited employers from requiring their employees to follow a moral code of conduct, such as no sex outside of marriage and no abortions. It also would have prohibited employers from disciplining or firing employees for actions that violate the mission or beliefs of the group.
The bill did not provide any exceptions for employers, meaning pro-life organizations, churches, religious schools and faith-based groups could have been forced to keep on employees whose actions are contrary to their faith or mission.
Brown vetoed the legislation Sunday, despite being an abortion supporter. He said the concerns addressed by the bill already are covered under current law, The Sacramento Bee reports.
Pro-life and religious groups, including the California Catholic Conference and the California Family Council, strongly opposed the measure, saying it would violate their First Amendment rights.
“An organization specifically chartered to support or oppose a specific set of beliefs or actions cannot fulfill its mission without requiring adherence to a code of conduct,” said Jonathan Keller, president of the conservative California Family Council, earlier this year.
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Sandra Palacios of the California Catholic Conference, previously criticized the bill as a violation of religious freedom.
“The bill would specifically deny religious employers our 1st Amendment protections to infuse our codes of conduct with the tenets of our faith,” she said, the LA Times reports.
The bill had the support of the radical pro-abortion group NARAL, which attacks the work of pregnancy resource centers and supports abortion on demand up to birth. It claimed the legislation was needed because of women like Teri James, an employee of the San Diego Christian College who allegedly was fired in 2012 because she became pregnant out of wedlock.
Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, the author of the bill, said women should not be disciplined or fired for “her reproductive choices.”
Gonzalez Fletcher claims to be Catholic and personally pro-life, but she has a 100-percent pro-abortion voting record, according to the California Family Council.
Responding to the veto, Alliance Defending Freedom Legal Counsel Elissa Graves said the bill that would have prohibited churches, religious colleges, religious non-profit organizations, and pro-life pregnancy care centers from having faith-based codes of conduct with regard to abortion and sexual behavior.
Graves said, “The government should not and cannot tell churches, Christian colleges, pro-life pregnancy care centers, and other religious groups that they can’t live out their beliefs within their own organizations. Gov. Brown was right to veto this immensely unconstitutional bill, which would have been an unprecedented overreach on the part of the state of California. The First Amendment doesn’t allow the state to order churches and other faith-based groups to violate their most deeply held convictions. They have the freedom to live according to their faith and to require those who work for them to do the same.”
Now did he veto the bill because he felt it didn’t go far enough, or did he accidentally do something right for once?
Am wondering. Maybe he’s in fear of losing his job?
Surprised Brown would veto a bill that discriminates against Christians.
That’s how bad it is, that it’s surprising that bills that target a religious group for open discrimination get stopped.
Maybe on strictly pragmatic grounds? The bill strikes me as impossible - or at the least ruinously expensive - to enforce.
JMHO, I haven't read it.
He knew the SC would smack it down and possibly set a wide reaching precedent.
babyKillers United ain’t gonna be happy ‘bout dat.
Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
Not if it has no hands.
Apparently, some things are too crazy even for Gov’nor Moonbeam....
I read the first ten posts. Curious if any one of the ten even read the article. One claimed not to have, but the others apparently posted off the headline.
Maybe they’ll just ban Christian schools...and Christians.
As a Californian I am absolutely shocked that Jerry Brown has now done one thing that I approve of.
“Am wondering. Maybe he’s in fear of losing his job?”
I would be more apt to go with this explanation as to why “Moonbeam” actually did something right.
I think I must be drunk, Brown did something right? I can’t be drunk, since I didn’t have a beer...
The progenitor of the Brown Streak high-speed rail wants big federal $ from the man he used to insult daily. I suspect Brown is trying make very late amends with President Trump. Otherwise, signing the bill was a no-brainer.
“”Now did he veto the bill because he felt it didn’t go far enough, or did he accidentally do something right for once?””
Did anyone else have to read it several times to understand that PERHAPS he did do something right for a change?
Unlike most lefties Brown actually thinks about stuff and occasionally does something right. Not very often though.
No, Brown simply knew that it wouldn’t survive a lawsuit to the state or federal level. He’s cold and calculating.....
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