Indiana Senate poised to allow hiring based on religion

This story was originally published on Feb. 2, 2015.

The Indiana Senate is poised to allow some state contractors to discriminate in hiring based on religion.

Senate Bill 127, authored by Sen. Travis Holdman, would allow religious-affiliated organizations that receive state contracts — including hospitals, universities, and child service providers — to hire people based on their religion. The bill would also allow those organizations to require employees to follow religious tenets.

A final Senate vote on the bill is scheduled for Tuesday.

Holdman, R-Markle, said he filed the bill to help Indiana Wesleyan University obtain state workforce training grants. The Attorney General's office last year determined that the university's religious lifestyle mandate violated state contracting requirements against employment discrimination, he said.

"My concern is that we have a large number of religious organizations providing services to the state of Indiana," he said.

But opponents say organizations seeking public money should be required to treat all members of the public equally.

"We feel that religious institutions should be able to hire whomever they choose and have their employees follow their religious tenants as long as they are not taking public funding," said Chris Paulsen, spokeswoman for Indiana Equality Action. "Once a religious institution takes public funding or bids on public projects they should then have to follow the rules like public businesses do in regards to discrimination based on any trait — sex, race, gender, sexual and gender orientation, etc."

Senate Minority Leader Tim Lanane, D-Anderson, tried on Monday to add language to the bill that would have prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation, but it was shot down 36-6.

He questioned whether the bill would allow employees to be questioned about private matters such as their use of birth control.

A measure similar to Holdman's bill stirred controversy last year. Former Rep. Eric Turner sought to slip it into an unrelated tax bill during a House committee hearing, but legislative leaders quickly moved to pan it.

This year, the measure appears to have more momentum. It is one of many "religious liberty" bills that Republican lawmakers have filed this session.

The frenzy of such bills follows a court decision that effectively legalized gay marriage in Indiana and a November election that led to larger, more conservative Republican supermajorities in the House and Senate.

Several of the bills would restrict state actions if they burden a person's right to exercise of religion. Other bills protect students who express religious points of view in their school work and public school teachers who display Christmas trees in their classrooms.

If Holdman's bill passes the Senate, it would still need approval from the House.

Call Star reporter Tony Cook at (317) 444-6081. Follow him on Twitter: @indystartony.