Written by Don Byrd
Religious Freedom Restoration Act legislation will have to wait another year in Michigan. Though it passed the House earlier this year, the state’s Senate declined to take up the bill before the legislative session expired. As the Detroit Free-Press explains, the bill had support but remained controversial.
Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, hasn’t put the issue on the agenda and said he’s not inclined to include it in the final days of the lame-duck session. If it’s not today, it dies for the year, but it can be reintroduced next year.
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Richardville’s reluctance to take up the bill comes as 15 senators — 14 Republicans and one Democrat (Sen. Tupac Hunter, D-Detroit) — signed a letter to Richardville asking him to take up the matter. The bill would need 20 votes to pass.
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Gov. Rick Snyder also doesn’t seem to be very enthusiastic about the measure. He told the Free Press this week that he would have rather taken a look at the measure if it was coupled with an expansion of the Elliott Larsen Civil Rights Act to include sexual orientation.
The bill will have to be reintroduced next year.
