Alabama Governor Kay Ivey on Friday signed Executive Order 733, “Promoting and Defending Religious Liberty Through Implementation of the Alabama Religious Freedom Amendment.” The executive order aims to “further strengthen protections for religious liberty in Alabama.”
“Religious freedom is the cornerstone of the American way of life, and as governor, I will always protect the rights of Alabamians and ensure they are free to exercise their beliefs as provided in the Constitution,” Gov. Ivey stated. “As I have promised, under my watch, our state government will always reflect the values of our people.”
Executive Order 733 ensures the enforcement of the Alabama Religious Freedom Amendment, which was proposed and ratified in 1998 as a reaction to federal court decisions viewed as hostile to the free exercise of religion.
The order specifies several legal principles providing religious-liberty protections for professionals and businesses holding a government license, state contractors, grant recipients, recipients of government benefits, and state employees.
One provision requires state executive-branch agencies to consider potential burdens on religious exercise when they adopt administrative rules.
Another provision requires state agencies to allow state employees to express their faith to the same extent that they allow employee expression that is not religious in nature.
Ivey’s office says that the Governor has a record of protecting religious freedom in Alabama.
Ivey recently met with the Oakwood Academy boy’s basketball team after the Seventh Day Adventist school was forced to forfeit its playoff game due to the team’s observance of the Sabbath. The Alabama High School Athletic Association (AHSAA) policy that forced the team’s forfeiture has since been amended to accommodate faith-based scheduling requests.
The order protects the religious rights of government contractors, state employees, and citizens requesting government services. It forbids discrimination on the basis of faith and even discrimination against those with no religious belief.
Baldwin County Attorney Harry Still disagreed with Ivey issuing the executive order.
“This is obviously some model implementation dreamed up by the Heritage Foundation or some other think tank,” Still said. “Another folly of the populists baiting Republicans. Populists don’t believe that we can legislate our way into utopia. This is not in any way in the “Southern tradition” who feared above all things the return of Papal influence.”
“I can also imagine a scenario where we can’t open bids on a particular day because it falls in Ramadan or something like that,” Still continued. “Remember, we have to accommodate all religious edicts when dealing with contractors with the state of Alabama and all religious entities.”
Still said the order, “Protects the rights of a state employee to express their religious leanings in the same way that they would express whether they were for Auburn or Alabama- to break it down for your readers.”
Still was a candidate for Attorney General in the 2022 Republican primary.
Ivey was inaugurated to her second full term as Governor just a week ago. Since then, she has issued three executive orders intended to improve government accountability and transparency and four executive orders meant to improve public school performance.
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