Victory Alert! Religious Liberty Bill To Become Law!

In a spectacular win for religious liberty this legislative session, the General Assembly last Thursday completed its actions and sent to Governor Glen Youngkin HB 2171, introduced by Delegate Wren Williams (R-9, Stuart), that prohibits executive action from treating places of worship different from “essential business” (such as ABC stores!) during times of emergency, as former Governor Ralph Northam did during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last year, the bill died in the Senate General Laws Committee, but after the Senate Judiciary Committee last week reported a slightly amended version to the floor with a thorough 13-2 endorsement, the full Senate gave its landslide approval 35-5. That left it to the House on Thursday to give its final consent. This commonsense bill originally passed that chamber on a party line 52-48 vote. The amended bill, with one Republican away on personal business, passed 53-43, picking up two Democrats,

This victory is all the sweeter considering the 2023 session has been described as a draw – conservative bills passed by the Republican House and liberal bills passed by the Democrat Senate died in the opposite chamber. Not only is it a victory for the First Amendment, it’s a victory for restrained government -- protecting us from future controls, regulations and mandates at the stroke of an individual’s pen, actions that should only be enacted through the legislative process by our elected representatives. It adds to last year’s school mask bill as another COVID-era mandate repeal for which conservatives campaigned.

In recent years, the elites have told us that our freedom of religion does not include the public square, but instead is confined to places of worship. During COVID the state attempted to restrict even that by closing down our churches and other faiths’ places of worship! The Family Foundation, which lobbied hard for the bill; and Alliance Defending Freedom, which provided legal expertise and legislative language, were the only two organizations that publicly supported HB 2171.