COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The lead sponsors of an Ohio bill that critics say mirrors controversial right-to-refuse legislation in Arizona said Wednesday they are withdrawing the legislation.



Co-sponsors Rep. Bill Patmon, D-Cleveland, and Rep. Tim Derickson, R-Oxford, agreed to remove House Bill 376 from consideration after increased pressure from civil and gay rights groups and concerns about controversy in Arizona.



The sponsors and religious groups supporting the bill say House Bill 376 would ensure religious beliefs are not burdened by government action. But opponents said the broad language gives business owners a license to discriminate against people who do not match their religious beliefs, especially gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Ohioans.

House Bill 376 would allow Ohioans to challenge state or local laws, ordinances and other policies on the grounds their "practice or observance of religion" was burdened. The government would then have to prove strict scrutiny — that the challenged law is necessary or crucial — for the law to be applied.

The wording is similar to Arizona's Senate Bill 1062, which has drawn protests and led some Republican lawmakers to publicly denounce their votes on the legislation. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, is expected to veto the bill.



Patmon said in an interview his bill was never intended to be discriminatory but rather reflect the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act passed in 1993. Courts have said applying the federal law in state cases is unconstitutional, and more than a dozen states have passed their own religious freedom laws.

"We thought it would be a good idea to protect people who wanted to wear their Yarmulke to work or put their Bible on their desk and not be punished in any form for that," Patmon said.

A Mount Vernon teacher who was known to keep a Bible on his desk sued the school district there after he was fired, claiming the district violated his free speech and civil rights. The Ohio Supreme Court held that district officials had cause to fire John Freshwater for disobeying orders to remove Bibles and other materials from his classroom but overstepped their authority when they told Freshwater to remove his personal Bible from his desk.



The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio said House Bill 376 would be the most extreme law in the nation. ACLU spokesman Nick Worner said the legislation is unnecessary because religious freedom is already protected by the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

"For some people, [religious freedom] means not only do you have a right to your religious beliefs, you have a right to force it on people," Worner said. "That's not what religious freedom is. It's a shield, not a sword — it's to protect you from the government, not to attack others."

Gay rights groups Equality Ohio and FreedomOhio encouraged supporters to contact Patmon and the bill's two Democratic secondary sponsors to get rid of Ohio's "turn away the gay" bill.

FreedomOhio, the group backing a constitutional amendment to overturn Ohio's gay marriage ban, issued a statement expressing their relief that Patmon reversed course on the bill.

"Our state already has an unconstitutional marriage ban in place, depriving loving same-sex couple of the right to be legally married – the last thing we need is to further marginalize and attack LGBT Ohioans," co-founder and director Ian James said.

Patmon said lawmakers plan to go back to the drawing board to draft tighter language that protects religious freedom without opening the door to discrimination.