PIERRE, S.D. (AP)— A state measure designed to enhance and protect religious freedoms may be unconstitutional, legislators have been told.
"This bill has no secular purpose," attorney Neil Fulton told committee members of the South Dakota Legislature. "Its primary purpose is to advance religion. You are setting yourself up to a serious constitutional problem."
Sponsor Dick Brown, a Republican House representative from Sioux Falls, said his bill reinstates criteria previously used by judges in determining whether government rules take precedence over an individual's religious beliefs.
Fulton and others contend the proposed legislation would allow illegal acts such as bigamy.
In 1990, the U.S. Supreme Court began limiting legal protections for religious beliefs.
Under the proposed law, state regulations would not be enforced unless they were determined to be essential and the least restrictive ways of protecting life, liberty, property and health.