The Jewish community, along with an unprecedented number of interfaith coalition partners, continues to pursue efforts to ensure that religious liberty receives the highest level of constitutional protection in our nation’s courts. This effort was necessitated by Supreme Court decisions, which established that religious liberty claims do not deserve the same level of protection afforded to other fundamental constitutional rights.

Current efforts to redress this wrong on the federal level center upon the Religious Liberty Protection Act. Passed by the House of Representatives last year, RLPA would reassert that no state or local law or regulation may burden the free exercise of religion, even unintentionally, unless it is doing so in the manner least restrictive to religious exercise, and doing so in order to serve a compelling state interest. The measure now awaits Senate action.

While much attention has been devoted to disagreements within the JCPA community that have arisen over the past year in connection with RLPA — disagreements which have led some JCPA agencies to withdraw their support for RLPA at this time — there is much upon which we agree.

The Jewish community is overwhelmingly committed to the notion that religious liberty should be afforded the highest level of constitutional protection like other fundamental constitutional rights. Our community is also sensitive to the concerns that have been raised with regard to RLPA’s potential impact upon state and local civil rights ordinances, but we are troubled by the fact that a great deal of misinformation has been deployed against RLPA in connection with these concerns, for no JCPA agency that has supported the cause of religious liberty has done so for the purpose of harming America’s civil rights protections.

The Jewish community remains united in its commitment to achieving the goal embodied in RLPA — the promotion of religious liberty and affording that liberty the highest level of constitutional protection. We will work to find acceptable ways, within a legislative framework, to achieve this goal while simultaneously being sensitive to possible adverse impact upon civil rights interests. JCPA will work to secure the passage of religious liberty legislation in a manner consistent with this statement.

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