Bill Description: House Bill 578 would prohibit religious discrimination by the state against adoption agencies or adoptive parents. 

Rating: +1

Does it violate the spirit or the letter of either the U.S. Constitution or the Idaho Constitution? Examples include restrictions on speech, public assembly, the press, privacy, private property, or firearms. Conversely, does it restore or uphold the protections guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution or the Idaho Constitution?

House Bill 578 would create Section 16-1648, Idaho Code, to prohibit the state from discriminating against adoption agencies or adoptive parents on the basis of religion. 

The bill contains intent language, which states in part, "Private child placing agencies and individuals, including faith-based child placing agencies and individuals, have the right to free exercise of religion under both the state and federal constitutions. Under well-settled principles of constitutional law, this right includes the freedom to abstain from conduct that conflicts with an agency's sincerely held religious beliefs."

The bill would prohibit the state government from discriminating against "a person that advertises, provides, or facilitates adoption or foster care services" due to "a sincerely held religious belief."

Likewise, the bill would prohibit the state government from discriminating against "a person who the state grants custody of a foster or adoptive child wholly or partially on the basis that the person guides, instructs, or raises a child, or intends to guide, instruct, or raise a child, based on or in a manner consistent with a sincerely held religious belief."

The bill also addresses state accreditation, licensure, and certification, as well as any contracts, grants, or agreements the state may grant. In each case, the bill would ban discrimination or adverse treatment on a person's religious beliefs or practices. 

Any person who "successfully asserts a claim or defense" under this law "may recover declaratory relief; injunctive relief to prevent or remedy a violation of this section or the effects of such a violation; compensatory damages; reasonable attorney's fees and costs; and any other appropriate relief, except that declaratory relief and injunctive relief shall be available against a private person not acting under color of state law upon a successful assertion of a defense under this section."

Religious discrimination is already broadly unconstitutional, but this bill may help to provide clarity regarding a broad range of discriminatory actions in which the state may not engage. 

(+1)