Congress passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) in 1993. Under the RFRA, ithe Federal government cannot pass a law that restricts religious freedom unless the law helps to advance a governmental interest and the law is the least restrictive way to advance the governmental interest.
Many states have their own versions of the RFRA. 21 states have enacted versions of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act through the legislature: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin.
Additionally, 10 states have their own version of the RFRA that was established by state court decisions: Alaska, Hawaii, Ohio, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Washington, and Wisconsin.
In practice, some state's RFRAs have become a way for lawmakers to discriminate based on sexual orientation by using religion as an excuse to challenge or opt out of state and local laws protecting LGBT people from discrimination. Recently, the United States Supreme Court decision in Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania, allows employers to refuse to provide health insurance that covers the cost of contraception if they have a religious or moral conflict. After this decision, employers who do not provide contraception benefits because they are exempt from doing so due to religious or moral conflicts, will not be committing discrimination.