Religious Freedom Statutes

This week Arizona Governor Jan Brewer (R) vetoed a bill passed by the Republican-controlled Arizona legislature.  Dubbed a "religious freedom" statute, the law would have exempted both individuals and companies from legal penalties if they violated the civil rights of customers, patients, etc. because of the perpetrator's sincerely held religious beliefs.  The backlash from major employers, citizens, and potential tourist events to Arizona led to various initial supporters and even the state's two Republican US Senators to oppose the bill.

Similar bills are not new.  A study by Wayne State law professor Christopher Lund identifies 16 states that added such laws between 1993 and 2009:

Interestingly, it appears Arizona has a law very similar to the one Gov. Brewer vetoed already on the books. Lund's article finds very few cases have arisen involving these laws.  Most also do not appear to have successfully exempted the defendant from legal consequences.

The recent rise of conservatives filing bills around religious freedoms comes largely as a backlash to the rapid expansion of same-sex marriage legalization.  Here is a brief primer on the issue:

First, dear readers, you must understand that existing civil rights on the national Federal level cover very specific classes of people (race, religion, ethnicity, disability, etc.)  Age is covered but only for people 40 and above.  In turn, not all classes of people are covered equally in the areas of employment, housing, and public accommodations.  For instance, sex discrimination is illegal in employment and housing.  Sex discrimination is also illegal in terms of some public accommodations (hotels, etc.) but generally not restaurants and many other venues.  So, you can offer special Ladies Night deals not offered equally to men, have gay male leather bars that exclude women, women-only music festivals, and women-only gyms.  Similarly, discrimination because of one's familial status is illegal in housing but not employment or public accommodations.

And when it comes to sexual orientation, there simply is no existing Federal law banning discrimination based on a person's homosexual, bisexual, or heterosexual orientation.  For years supporters have been trying to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) to ban such discrimination nationally.

21 states and DC, however, have state laws banning sexual orientation discrimination.  11 other states ban sexual orientation discrimination involving public (state) employees.  Additionally, scores of cities, universities, and businesses have ordinances and policies banning sexual orientation bias.

So, now we have a number of states legalizing same-sex marriages.  In fact, all of the states where same-sex marriages are currently performed have civil rights statutes banning sexual orientation.  In New Mexico, a gay couple planned their wedding and contacted a public photography business to photograph their ceremony.  The business' owner, a devout conservative Christian, refused claiming performing this service for this couple would violate his religious beliefs.  The couple filed a civil rights complaint against the business and ultimately won.  Conservatives howled this application of existing civil rights laws against this business violated the owner's personal religion.

In Oregon, there was a similar case involving a lesbian couple planning a ceremony to bless their union. Again, a public business -in this case a bakery- refused to serve them.  The couple again filed a complaint against Sweet Cakes by Melissa.  Writers for the Portland Willamette Weekly wrote an interesting article exploring just how devout the Christian owners of this business were.  They write that the bakery was willing to make cakes celebrating a divorce party, a pagan solstice party, an out-of-wedlock baby shower, a non-kosher BBQ, and a party celebrating a researcher who had just received a grant to clone human cells.

This selective application of 'sincerely held religious beliefs' is also what led to a Lexington, KY, t-shirt printing company's loss over a complaint filed when it refused to print an innocuous Pride festival t-shirt but showed a history of printing a variety of sexually suggestive and crude t-shirts for other customers.

Yet, -and this point is key- the Oregon and New Mexico couples and the Kentucky gay organization would have been out-of-luck legally if they had lived in other jurisdictions.  Kentucky for instance has no civil rights law banning sexual orientation.  GLSO, the gay organization, and the offending printer both happened to be in Lexington, a city that passed a non-discrimination ordinance covering sexual orientation in 1999.

So, a gay couple that marries in Iowa and then goes home to rural Kansas and is refused a wedding cake by a local bakery has no civil rights protection and no way to legally fight the refusal.  So on the legal front, it is not marriage that is the driving force behind the civil rights cases but the enforcement of existing civil rights laws.  On the political front, however, religious freedom bills appear to be more about making a political statement against gay people and same-sex marriage.

UPDATE: Marriage Map

This week there have been a number of changes affecting civil marriage laws in the United States.  So, it is time for another map update:

a. Yet another Federal judge -the 6th I think- has ruled that a state's ban on offering civil marriage and its benefits and responsibilities to same-sex couples violates the US Constitution.  This week a judge in Texas ruled that the Texas ban was unconstitutional.  The ruling has a stay on it while the case can be appealed by the state government.

b. In Kentucky another Federal judge today lifted his stay on an earlier ruling that the Bluegrass State must recognize marriages legally performed in other states.  The state's Democratic Attorney General has asked for a 90 day stay so that the state can decide to either appeal or prepare.  For KY's couples married out of state, confusion abounds about how to complete their taxes.  Currently they can file jointly their Federal returns as married but must submit state returns separately as single.  No word yet on how today's decision will affect tax filings.

c. The increasingly legal complexities are making my little map also more complex.  I've now added Ohio to the states recognizing out-of-state marriages because the Federal court ruling there orders the state to recognize such marriages on death certificates.  This ruling, however, if on appeal too.

The Typical American, Housing Values

Earlier this week I posted about the typical American home based on data from the American Community Survey (ACS).  The ACS provides some other interesting data on Americans and housing:

• Jennifer, our typical American, moved into her house between 2000 and 2009 (51.7%).
• She owns her home (65.5%) but is still paying off the mortgage (67.1%). 
• The house is currently valued at a median value of $181,400.  Jennifer and her husband’s monthly mortgage payment is a median of $1,559. 
• If they decided to rent somewhere else instead, they would pay a median rent of $889.

The Typical American, Home Sweet Home

The Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) collects data on American residents’ housing.  While the US Census and ACS collect data on people by household, the housing data are collected based on housing units (houses, duplexes, apartments, etc.).  Based on these data, Jennifer, our typical American, lives:

• In a single family, detached house (61.7% of housing units are single family, detached housing units)
• Built between 1970 and 1979 (16.1%)
• With 5 rooms total (20.4%)
• Including 3 bedrooms (39.8%), a complete kitchen (99.1%), complete plumbing (99.5%), and telephone service (97.5%).
• The house is heated by gas from a utility company (49.4%).

How typical is your home?

The Typical American, Born in the USA?

According to data from the 2012 American Community Survey, 1 in 7 American residents were born outside the United States.  About half of the foreign-born residents are now US citizens.  With the focus of "birther" conspiracists who argue that President Obama was born outside the US, there has been more attention given to the Constitution's requirement that only a natural born citizen can be President.  There are some interesting political factoids around this issue and recent US presidential elections:

• In 2012, the fathers of both the Democratic (Obama) and Republican (Romney) candidates were born outside the United States.  President Obama's father was born in Kenya.  Gov. Romney's father was born in Mexico.  
• In the 2008 presidential election, the Republican candidate, John McCain, was born outside the US. He was born in Panama in what was then the US Panama Canal Zone to American parents.  His grandfather and father at the time were commanders of the Coco Solo submarine base and a submarine based there.
• At one time there was discussion about amending the US Constitution to allow any citizen to run for President.  This discussion arose around the possibility of Austrian-born former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger running for President.

So exactly how does one become a natural born citizen?  The Constitution does not define this term but according to Wikipedia, a 2011 Congressional Research Service report laid out the argument that this term applied to anyone who met the requirements for citizenship at birth.  Thus, that would include anyone born in the United States regardless of whether one, two, or none of the baby's parents are US citizens.  US Senator Ted Cruz for example was until recently both an American and Canadian citizen because he was born in Canada to an American mother and a Cuban father.  He has since renounced his Canadian citizenship. While his father was not a US citizen until 2005, I do not know if his Cuban-born father was a Cuban or Canadian by citizenship at the time of his birth.  Cruz could possibly file to have Cuba recognize him as a citizen too!

The second way one becomes a natural born citizen is by being born to an American citizen who is abroad.  George Romney (former governor of Michigan and Mitt Romney's father), John McCain, and Ted Cruz all fit this category.  Oddly, even if Barack Obama was born in Kenya -as some birthers claim- to his Kansas-born American mother, he would still be a natural born citizen.  These birthers obsess about where he was born but none appear to refute that his mother was an American citizen.

The US is a nation born of immigrants stretching back 10,000s of years to when the first humans arrived.  That process is not complete:  today millions of Americans are newcomers to this country.

The Typical American, Moving

Have you moved in the past year?  If so, you do not match the profile of Jennifer, our Typical American. Still, many Americans move each year.  One in 7 Americans moved in 2012 according to data from the 2012 American Community Survey.

Be sure to check out this earlier post about Chris Walker's visualization of interstate migration.

The Typical American, Veterans

Has Jennifer, our Typical American, ever served in the military?  According to data from the 2012 American Community Survey, the answer is no.  Among Americans 18 years and older, fewer than 1 in 10 are veterans.