On March 26, Republican Governor Mike Pence of the state of Indiana signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, or RFRA, into law.Several days later, the Arkansas legislature passed a similar bill.Supporters call them religious freedom laws. Opponents say they are laws that permit discriminatory acts against homosexuals and others.After a week of public uproar over the new laws, government officials from Indiana and Arkansas backed away and amended the measures.Back in 1993, the federal government passed an RFRA. Then-President Bill Clinton signed it into law.That original measure was designed to protect religious minorities from having to violate their beliefs in order to follow a general law.It was created after a Native American man was dismissed from his job after he had failed a drug test.The drug he had used was peyote. His tribe used the plant in religious ceremonies.So the idea behind the law was to bar the government from unnecessary interference in an individual's religious practices.
