Committee advances bill to strengthen religious-liberty review; critics warn of broad private suits

Senate Judiciary Committee members advanced Senate Bill 60 on a committee substitute on a voice vote after public testimony and questions, reporting the measure favorably with the committee's opinion that the bill should pass.

The bill, sponsored by Senator Steve Rawlings (Senate District 11), would amend KRS 446.35 to raise evidentiary standards in claims that government actions burden religious exercise, expand remedies to include costs and attorney's fees, and include a waiver of sovereign immunity that would allow private suits against state or local government actors.

Proponents argued the measure clarifies and strengthens protections already recognized in law. "What RFRA's basically say is that government should be held to a very high level of proof before it interferes with someone's free exercise," Rawlings told the committee. He said the bill would require government actions that burden religious exercise to be justified by "clear and convincing evidence of a…