“Corporate tech giant Apple has asked Gov. Jan Brewer to veto the controversial religious freedom bill SB1062, the company and the Governor’s Office confirmed,” Jeremy Duda reports for The Arizona Capitol Times. “Brewer spokesman Andrew Wilder said the governor spoke on the phone with the company.
“The request comes as Apple prepares to open a new sapphire glass manufacturing plant in Mesa. The plant, which Brewer and other political leaders have touted as economic development coup for Arizona, will employ about 700 full-time employees,” Duda reports. “The chorus of anti-SB1062 businesses kept getting louder on Monday as 83 companies, trade organizations and other business groups signed onto a letter, originally sent on Friday by the Arizona Technology Council, urging the governor to veto the bill. The additional signees included several major hotel chains, tourism groups, corporate giants like AT&T and other technology companies.”
Duda reports, “Numerous business organizations have urged Brewer to veto SB1062, which supporters say will protect religious freedom and critics say will allow companies to use religious beliefs to discriminate against the LBGT community.”
Read more in the full article here.
“Some have claimed that a bill recently passed by the Arizona legislature would give businesses broad license to not serve someone for being gay,” Napp Nazworth reports for The Christian Post.
“This claim, though, may be a misreading, according a CP legislative analysis,” Nazworth reports. “While the bill is an attempt to broaden who is covered under its religious freedom protections, in all cases it actually narrows when a religious belief could be used to refuse service.”
Read more in the full article here.
“SB1062 redefines and expands the state’s definition of “exercise of religion” and “state action” to protect businesses, corporations and people from lawsuits after denying services based on a sincere religious belief,” Josh Frigerio reports for ABC 15 Arizona. “According to the bill, ‘A person whose religious exercise is burdened in violation of this section may assert that violation as a claim or a defense in a judicial proceeding, regardless of whether the government is a party to the proceeding.'”
“The bill also establishes a set of needed guidelines for when this potential defense could be used in court: The person’s action or refusal to act is motivated by a religious belief; The person’s religious belief is sincerely held; [and] The state action substantially burdens the exercise of the person’s religious beliefs,” Frigerio reports. “The bill defines a ‘person’ as “any individual, association, partnership, corporation, church, religious assembly or institution or other business organization.”
“Opponents of the bill fear that the legislation would lead to businesses discriminating against people, such as those in same-sex unions, based solely on the owner’s religious beliefs,” Frigerio reports. “Cathi Herrod, President of the Center for Arizona Policy, an organization that supports the passing of the bill, says the bill ‘protects the religious freedom of every Arizonan.’ In a statement released Saturday, Feb. 22, Herrod said, ‘It’s a shame that we even need a bill like this in America. But growing hostility against freedom in our nation, and the increasing use of government to threaten and punish its own citizens, has made it necessary.'”
“The Arizona State Legislature approved passage of SB1062 on Thursday, Feb. 20,” Frigerio reports. “The bill was delivered to Gov. Jan Brewer’s desk on Monday, Feb. 24. She has until Saturday, March 1 to either sign or veto it.”
Read more in the full article here.
The full text of Arizona Senate Bill 1062: http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/51leg/2r/bills/sb1062p.pdf
[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]