Employment attorney Marc Fleischauer testified before the Ohio House Judiciary Committee on January 22, 2014, regarding the impact and legal history of HB 376, the proposed Ohio Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The bill purports to set uniform standards by which Ohio courts would evaluate governmental actions that burden individual religious freedoms. Several states are adopting such standards, in accordance with the United States Supreme Court’s ruling in City of Boerne v. Flores, 521 U.S. 507 (1997). The Flores case held that similar standards under a similar federal statute could not be imposed on the states, absent state legislative action. Mr. Fleischauer is pictured here with the bipartisan bill’s sponsors, Rep. Tim Derrickson (R-Hanover Township) and Rep. Bill Patmon (D-Cleveland), along with others who testified about the bill before the Judiciary Committee.
(Marc Fleishauer is third from the right)
