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Arizona Gov. Signs Sweeping Religious Freedom Law Declaring Churches ‘Essential’
LifeSite News ^ | 4/29/22 | Raymond Wolfe

Posted on 05/01/2022 6:41:35 PM PDT by marshmallow

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey also signed a bill protecting clergy visits for health care patients during states of emergency.

PHOENIX (LifeSiteNews) – Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed into law two bills that strengthen religious liberty protections in the Grand Canyon State, including by ensuring that churches can stay open in emergencies and allowing clergy to visit residents in health care facilities.

Ducey on Monday approved HB 2507, a sweeping religious freedom bill that outlaws “discriminatory” government action against churches and other faith-based institutions due to religion, religious expression, or for seeking to operate in a state of emergency, such as a pandemic.

The law declares religious services “essential,” adding that the state must allow religious organizations to operate during emergencies “to the same or greater extent as other organizations or businesses that provide essential services and that are necessary and vital to the health and welfare of the public.”

Faith-based entities may still be required “to comply with neutral health, safety, or occupancy requirements” that also apply to secular institutions deemed essential.

But the state cannot enforce any health, safety, or occupancy rule that “imposes a substantial burden on a religious service” without showing that the measure is “essential to further a compelling government interest” and is the least restrictive means of doing so.

The text of the law emphasizes that it “shall be construed in favor of a broad protection of the free exercise of religion,” though it doesn’t apply in cases based on criminal conduct. Religious organizations can sue for damages and legal fees over violations of the law.

(Excerpt) Read more at lifesitenews.com ...


TOPICS: Current Events; Religion & Politics
KEYWORDS: essential; essentialservices

1 posted on 05/01/2022 6:41:35 PM PDT by marshmallow
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To: marshmallow

This is about the only good thing Doug D-Bag has done. He was one of the lockdown governors and I will not miss him.


2 posted on 05/01/2022 6:46:21 PM PDT by WMarshal (Neocons and leftists are the same species of vicious rat.)
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To: WMarshal

I had to read the name of the senator 10 times just to make sure this was not a Babylon Bee article because Ducey is an effing RINO clown who didnt do jack sh*t to help Trump on decertification of votes in AZ.

He’s still a loser POS. As a reminder, this asshole VETOED election integrity in AZ even as the house voted for it...


3 posted on 05/01/2022 6:50:48 PM PDT by max americana (fired leftards on cue after every election since 1992, and enjoyed seeing these bastards cry)
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To: marshmallow

What state has a formal definition in Law for “essential” or “non-essential” businesses? Such a creature never existed before and they were made up out of thin air for COVID.

This madness has to stop. All businesses are essential and stop shutting down businesses and quarantining health people, ever again!


4 posted on 05/01/2022 6:55:13 PM PDT by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: marshmallow

XLNT,,,
It’s a Start.


5 posted on 05/01/2022 6:56:23 PM PDT by Big Red Badger (We Are JONAH)
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To: max americana

I hear ya but he must have
Had a “Come to Jesus” point
To pound This out.


6 posted on 05/01/2022 6:59:40 PM PDT by Big Red Badger (We Are JONAH)
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To: marshmallow

Why do we need State level legislation to protect the First Amendment?


7 posted on 05/01/2022 6:59:46 PM PDT by lightman (I am a binary Trinitarian. Deal with it!)
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To: lightman

Because the Constitution only exists as a relic in a glass case.


8 posted on 05/01/2022 7:15:01 PM PDT by Lurkinanloomin ( (Natural born citizens are born here of citizen parents)(Know Islam, No Peace-No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: ConservativeMind

DO NOT FORGET what they’ve done to you.
Do not let their sudden realization they are in bad shape politically excuse the last two-plus years of abuses.
They shut down your job.
Called many of you “non-essential.”
Closed your kids’ schools.
Expected you to live off $1200 for months while they got richer and richer.
Denied you the ability to be with your dying loved ones.
Then denied you the ability to give those loved ones a proper funeral.
While they let George Floyd have three.
While they went on vacation.
Visited family.
The hair salon.
They arrested you for paddle boarding by yourself.
They shut down the parks and the playgrounds.
They called you a grandma killer if you questioned them.
Suspended you from social media if you didn’t obey the narrative.

They called you domestic terrorists when you demanded your kids get the education your tax dollars paid for.
They mocked you when you demanded a return to normalcy for children.
They sneer at your concern over empty shelves and exploding grocery and utility bills.
They denied you the chance to try alternative treatments for COVID.
Then they fired you for not getting the vaccine.
When you stand up for your freedom, they call you Nazis and bigots.

Do not forget what they have done.
Do not forgive them.
They are hoping that, by November, you have forgotten the nightmareof the last 2+ years.
YOU struggle to make ends meet and the best the Biden administration can do is free crack pipes for “racial equity.”
This is on top of the woke, cancel culture bull they shove down our throats, the 2020 riots, being accused of racism and bigotry because we oppose their agenda.
As the election draws closer, they’ll pretend they didn’t do any of this.
They’ll gaslight us.
Project.
Blame the GOP (like they tried to when defunding the police went south).

DO NOT give them power.
They haven’t learned a damn thing from this.
You re-elect them, and you can expect masks and lockdowns and nonsense in perpetuity.
Not just for COVID, but for whatever else they deem a
“public health emergency” (guns, climate change).
(Remember, they are the very same people who ignore a pubic health emergency aka AIDS.)
They will trample your rights.

VOTE THEM OUT.

NEVER FORGET.

REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER!


9 posted on 05/01/2022 7:17:44 PM PDT by lightman (I am a binary Trinitarian. Deal with it!)
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To: marshmallow

Just a ploy by the creep to get reelected.


10 posted on 05/01/2022 7:55:39 PM PDT by Robert DeLong
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To: lightman

Isn’t
“Free and FAIR” Voteing in
The First Amendment?
.
Excuse me for not having my
Pocket Constitution handy.


11 posted on 05/01/2022 7:55:40 PM PDT by Big Red Badger (We Are JONAH)
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To: marshmallow

How about a bill requiring all barn doors to be closed after the animals have all escaped.


12 posted on 05/01/2022 8:22:48 PM PDT by bigbob
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To: Robert DeLong

He’s term limited.


13 posted on 05/01/2022 8:42:59 PM PDT by DLfromthedesert
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To: max americana

“Ducey is an effing RINO clown”

Methinks Ice cream boy is thinking about a run against Sinema in 2024 and is hoping against hope that we only remember stuff like this, and all the bad stuff is water under the bridge.


14 posted on 05/01/2022 8:57:00 PM PDT by Tupelo (Don't underestimate The Republican Party's ability to f*ck things up)
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To: DLfromthedesert
Good, I can't stand the man. But I believe he had a motive, and that motive was not for the positive to anything but himself. Like perhaps add to his phony legacy.

I just know that Kari Lake is running and I hope she wins.

15 posted on 05/02/2022 4:15:37 AM PDT by Robert DeLong
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