The House Judiciary Committee, of which Rep. Nadler is a senior member, held numerous hearings over several years to determine the extent of the problem and create legislation responding to the facts placed before the committee. This painstaking effort convinced members of Congress that it was necessary, and complied with Supreme Court rulings that require Congressional action in this area to be remedial and in response to documented problems. In the past, communities have attempted to exclude religious minorities, such as Orthodox Jews who must walk to Sabbath services and who have been excluded from communities by zoning ordinances forbidding residences to be used as places of worship, or Mormons who were denied a permit to build a temple because the zoning board said it would ruin the residential character of the community, even though it was at a busy intersection and across the street from another church. In Boston, the Boston Landmarks Commission attempted to interfere with the placing of an alter in a church, thereby threatening to prohibit the members of the Catholic congregation from praying according to Church teaching. The bill would also permit prison inmates or patients in hospitals to practice their religions.
Religious liberty is at the core of the American spirit.
By passing this legislation, I am proud to have been part of the effort to ensure that those rights and values remain protected in the future.