Senate lawmakers Tuesday approved a bill allowing religious and faith-based organizations to hire employees based on religion.
Sen. Travis Holdman’s, R-Markle, bill says organizations with a religious background that have contracts with state or local governments, such as universities, child care facilities and hospitals, can make hiring decisions based on religion.
Holdman says the legislation would keep Indiana in line with federal law.
“It’s not a legal license to discriminate, to be bigoted, to do all those things from the negative sense,” Holdman says. “It’s really just a carve-out that we have been practicing in the state of the Indiana already.”
But Sen. Karen Tallian, D-Portage, notes the legislation also says organizations can require employees or applicants to follow the religious tenets of that organization. She says that goes far beyond federal law.
“And how are these prospective employees supposed to decide or know what they have to conform to? Are they going to be given a list? Are they going to have to take religion classes?” Tallian says.
Tallian says she believes the bill will leave the state open to lawsuits.
The measure passed 39 -11, mostly along party lines, and now moves to the House.
