Editorial: The legal case against Missouri's 'religious liberty' proposal
By the Editorial Board
2 hrs ago
All of the furor over Missouri’s proposed “religious liberty” amendment could be for naught. Some of the state’s top legal minds, in two separate opinions, have parsed its language and concluded that it could be held unconstitutional in a dozen different ways.
Senate Joint Resolution 39 would give companies and individuals who oppose same-sex marriage out of “sincere religious belief” the right to withhold services related to those weddings. The law shields not only clergy, but caterers, florists or “anyone who provides goods or services of expressional or artistic creation.”
SJR 39 has passed the state Senate but faces votes in two House committees before the full House can consider it. One of those committee votes was postponed last week after the legal memos outlining the constitutional problems began circulating in the Legislature.
One memo was written by Harvey Tettlebaum of Jefferson City, a Republican and a partner with the Husch Blackwell law firm. The second memo was signed by 15 law professors and assistant professors at Washington and St. Louis universities, the University of Missouri-Kansas City and Columbia University in New York.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/columns/the-platform/editorial-the-legal-case-against-missouri-s-religious-liberty-proposal/article_2f721b8a-2e8b-5e79-8524-859f110b102e.html
