Video: Oregon Governor Repeals Ban on Teachers’ Religious Dress
Oregon Governor Signs Bill Repealing Ban on Teachers’ Religious Dress
SALEM, OREGON – On April 1, 2010, Governor Ted Kulongoski signed a bill (HB 3686) that will repeal Oregon’s 87-year-old ban on teachers wearing religious dress.
Photo Credit: Ravitej Khalsa
SALEM, OREGON – On April 1, 2010, Governor Ted Kulongoski signed a bill (HB 3686) that will repeal Oregon’s 87-year-old ban on teachers wearing religious dress. Although the Governor did express some concern about how it will be interpreted and implemented in a signing statement, the Kulongoski wrote that ”Repealing ORS 342.650 and 342.655, which prohibited public school teachers in Oregon from wearing “religious dress” in the class room, is the right thing to do.”
In his letter, Governor Kulongoski wrote that in order to address the issues that arise “at the intersection of the teacher’s right to practice his or her religion and the students’ right to be taught in a religiously neutral environment,” the bill will not be implemented until after the 2010-2011 school year. This will give the Bureau of Labor and Industries the opportunity to create guidelines so that there will be “clarity and predictability” in how the law will be implemented.
The bill overturns bans on teachers wearing religious dress such as headscarves, turbans, and yarmulkes. Some groups, such as the ACLU, had supported the ban, claiming that it provided students with a religiously neutral environment while other groups, including Sikh groups, were concerned that they could not become teachers if they had to choose between the education profession and their faith.
The passage of HB 3686 provided a clean-up to last year’s Oregon Workplace Religious Freedom Act, and passed with broad bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate. It struck a reasonable compromise and is, as the governor stated, “the right thing to do.”
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Watch a Video of the Signing Ceremony
Read the bill: http://www.leg.state.or.us/10ss1/measpdf/hb3600.dir/hb3686.en.pdf
Read Governor Kulongoski’s letter on HB 3686 - http://www.oregon.gov/Gov/2010_Special_Session/Correspondence/Brown_HB3686.pdf
Read more at the Northwest Religious Liberty Association
Watch a Video of the Signing Ceremony
Oregon House Votes to Repeal Ban on Teachers Wearing Religious Dress
By an overwhelming majority, the Oregon House of Representatives has voted 51-8 to repeal a Klan-era ban on teachers wearing religious dress in the classroom. The law, originally an anti-Catholic measure, was implemented with the support of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. It bans Muslim public school teachers from wearing headscarves, Sikh men from wearing Turbans, and Jewish men from wearing yarmulkes. Oregon is one of only three states to prohibit religious dress in the classroom.
The bill is now headed to the Oregon Senate.
For a second year in a row, House Speaker Dave Hunt has led the charge in favor of workplace religious freedom. In July 2009, the Oregon Workplace Religious Freedom Act was passed but left in place the ban on teachers who wear religious garb. This ban, found in , which had been used to effectively exclude Sikhs from teaching in the public schools, has been the subject of intense debate between advocates who feel that the law unjustly prohbitied people of faith whose religious garb from teaching in public schools and others who were concerned that this might lead to proselytism of students.
Greg Hamilton, the President of the Northwest Religious Liberty Association, lobbied for this bill as well as last year’s successful Oregon Workplace Religious Freedom Act.
More on this to come soon, but for now here are some more stories on this bill:
Northwest Religious Liberty Association Honors Oregon Speaker Dave Hunt
Representative Dave Hunt, speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives, was awarded by the Northwest Religious Liberty Association (NRLA) at the Oregon Conference Campmeeting in Gladstone on July 17, 2009 for his legislative sponsorship of the Oregon Workplace Religious Freedom Act, Senate Bill 786 (SB 786) which was signed into law by Governor Ted Kulongoski. There were 2,056 people in attendance.
Governor signs Oregon Workplace Religious Freedom Act
Northwest Religious Liberty Association
Press Release – July 21, 2009
The Stage Was Set
On a sweltering Friday summer evening, and just two minutes prior to going on stage before approximately 2,000 Seventh-day Adventist Christians at the Gladstone, Oregon Campmeeting, the Honorable Representative Dave Hunt (D), Speaker of the House of Representatives for the Oregon Legislature, informed the president and staff of the Northwest Religious Liberty Association that Governor Ted Kulongoski had quietly signed Senate Bill 786, the Oregon Workplace Religious Freedom Act, the day before, on Thursday, July 16, 2009.This was like music to our ears, as naysayers who did not fully understand the nature of the bill had been publicly urging the governor to veto it.
Greg Hamilton thanked the Speaker for his faithful diligence in championing religious freedom for all people of faith in Oregon, including Seventh-day Adventist Christians, by giving him a plaque with the symbol of the torch of religious freedom. He also praised Representative Hunt “for championing such a noble cause in the State of Oregon” and for “your foresight and leadership in making the Oregon bill the potential model for both state and federal Workplace Religious Freedom Acts.”Legislative History
The Northwest Religious Liberty Association has had a close working relationship with Representative Hunt since the 2003 legislative session when they worked together on the Oregon Religious Freedom Act, which focused on restoring the “compelling state interest” and “least restrictive means” constitutional tests for the free exercise of religion in Oregon.
From the vantage point of the Northwest Religious Liberty Association, the approximately one hundred and fifty individuals that seek out its workplace mediation services each year, the evidence is clear that people of faith in the workplace too often confront impossible conflicts between their employment and their religious convictions.
Understanding the Specifics
What this Act does is clarify the responsibility of employers to accommodate the scheduling of leave time for the observation of religious holy days, or for the wearing of religious apparel in the workplace unless it poses a “significant difficulty or expense” to their business(es).
It also defines “undue hardship” more coherently.
Senate Bill 786 passed the Oregon Senate by a 63% percent vote on May 5 and by a 66% percent vote in the Oregon House of Representatives on May 29. Despite some controversy surrounding the bill in the last several days, Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski signed the bill July 16, 2009.
The most appropriate summary is that God is gracious, God is good.
Visit the Northwest Religious Liberty Association online at http://www.nrla.com
Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski signs the Workplace Religious Freedom Act
Breaking News: We have received word that Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski has signed the Oregon Workplace Religious Freedom Act (SB 786).
SB 786 requires employers to make credible attempts to accommodate religious holy day observance and religious dress. Prior to SB 786, employers in Oregon could make only the bare minimum effort to meet accommodation requirements. This bill will be a step forward in clarifying the responsibility of employers to their religious employees.
The bill had been under fire this week from some religious organizations who promoted the idea that WRFA was designed to prohibit teachers from wearing religious dress. In reality the bill had left an 80+ year prohibition on religious dress by teachers in the public schools in place after a 2007 version of WRFA had failed because it had eliminated the requirement.
House Speaker Dave Hunt who championed WRFA has pledged to work to remove the educational restriction next term, and RLTV will be very supportive of those efforts. Currently Oregon and Pennsylvania are the only states that have prohibitions on any religious dress by teachers.
The Federal WRFA bills, brought over the course of more than a decade would provide a much broader range of religious practices than simply dress or religious garb, however the ACLU and other groups have expressed concerns that overly broad requirements provide no real guidance to employers and could potentially create hostile work environments. Although this was not necessarily a realistic assessment of the effects of WRFA, the federal bill which gained bipartisan support from key legislators such as Hilary Clinton, John Kerry, John McCain, and Elizabeth Dole still faced stiff opposition.
While the Oregon bill may not be all inclusive, it will provide religious employees who face the most common problems of holy days and garb an opportunity to keep their jobs and their faith. Other issues will be addressed through existing channels under the pre-SB 786 standard and may provide opportunity for clean-up legislation later.
For more information on the bill, visit http://www.religiousliberty.tv/tag/sb-786
Oregon House of Representatives passes Workplace Religious Freedom Act
Greg Hamilton consults with Speaker Dave Hunt
BY VOTE OF 38-21 OREGON’S WORKPLACE RELIGIOUS FREEDOM ACT PASSES IN OREGON’S HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES!
Mark it down on your calendar, because this bill effort was a “historic,” if not a heroic, testament of God’s divine providence and power working through human instruments!
May 29, 2009 will long live in the memory of the leadership and support team of the Northwest Religious Liberty Association (NRLA) as Oregon Representative Dave Hunt (D-Gladstone District), the Speaker of Oregon’s House of Representatives, took apart each of the specific arguments of three of his colleagues in his closing remarks during the vigorous debate on the House floor. Opponents argued that current federal law was sufficient, and that the “minimal cost” and administrative “inconvenience” standards to define an “undue” business “hardship” were appropriate for employers to use when denying religious accommodation requests in the workplace.
However, the 65 and 63 percent that voted in favor of the bill in Oregon’s House and Senate chambers respectively, agreed with Speaker Hunt that current law provides employers with little basis for defending the decision to accommodate or to deny accommodation. As a result, they exclaimed that employers often wave the claim of “undue hardship” like a magic wand without having to 1) define, explain, or demonstrate what that “undue hardship” is to the employee, or 2) how it really adversely affects their business in administrative terms, or in dollars and cents. Speaker Hunt, the chief sponsor of SB 786-A, further argued that some employers today continue to regularly define “undue hardship” as anything that causes a business “inconvenience,” and use it as a false legal pretext to refuse, as a matter of policy, to accommodate religious requests.
Speaker Hunt reminded his colleagues that a few unfortunate Supreme Court decisions, beginning with TWA v. Hardison, 432 U.S. 63 (1977), reduced the definition of “undue hardship” to a “de minimis” or “inconvenience” standard in favor of the employer. As a result, it significantly placed people of faith at a disadvantage in the workplace and created unnecessary unemployment hardships for them. That is why “undue hardship,” he argued, must be defined more coherently as a “significant difficulty” and “expense” and that such language, in turn, would also help relieve employers of so many discrimination claims against them.
What This Bill Does
What this bill does is clarify the responsibility of employers to accommodate the scheduling of leave time for the observation of religious holy days, or for the wearing of religious apparel in the workplace unless it poses a “significant difficulty or expense” to their business(es). More specifically, it restores the original federal Title VII legal standard involving religious discrimination which obligated employers to demonstrate that they reasonably attempted to accommodate the sincerely held religious beliefs and practices of their employees before claiming that such beliefs and practices posed a “significant difficulty” and “expense” for their business(es). This bill, once law, will help thousands of people of faith in the workplace who many times are forced to choose between their faith and putting food on the table for their family.
The Next Step
Oregon’s Workplace Religious Freedom Act now goes to the Governor’s desk for his signature. The Northwest Religious Liberty Association, Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, and the Oregon Jewish Federation of America, have been invited to join House Speaker Dave Hunt and Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian to join him at the signing photo-op with the Governor. This historic event should occur sometime between the middle and end of June.
According to Geoff Sugerman, the Communications Director of Speaker Hunt’s office, “I don’t anticipate that Governor Ted Kulongoski (D) would veto a bill that caters to enhancing and protecting workers’ rights while balancing the rights of employers under Title VII involving religious accommodation and discrimination claims.” Speaker Hunt’s office is fairly certain that Governor Kulongoski will sign the bill into law. But we must not take this last important step for granted. Therefore, please continue to keep this historic legislative Act in your prayers, and specifically pray that the Governor will decide to sign it without reservation.
Divine Providence and An Organizational Note
A few professional observations may be worthwhile.
From Left - Trevor Sleeman (Legislative Aide to Speaker Hunt), David Miller, Shani Balverio, Tara Gonzales, Greg Hamilton, Speaker Dave Hunt, Rhonda Bolton, Michael Peabody, and Douglas Clayville
It has been a tremendous blessing to be a first hand witness to Representative Dave Hunt’s commitment to religious freedom, and particularly in championing religious freedom in the workplace. Speaker Hunt, whose meteoric rise to power and influence as a practicing Baptist in a notoriously liberal state, demonstrated to all discerning observers that he had truly been “called for such a time as this” (see the Scriptural allusion to Esther 4:14).
Indeed, the passage of this bill in both the Oregon Senate (April 9) and House represents nearly eleven years of painstaking lobbying efforts; first with attempts to pass an Oregon Religious Freedom Act affecting the area of constitutional law involving free exercise of religion at the state level (1999-2005), and second with Oregon’s Workplace Religious Freedom Act addressing federal Title VII workplace discrimination law standards and applications at the state level (2007-2009). We failed in the first effort, but succeeded in the second. In a diplomatic sense, battle worn and weary, with anxiety attacks and knots in our stomachs, is one way to describe our experience on Friday, May 29. Sweet resignation and satisfaction, like after successfully climbing to the top of a huge mountain peak, is another that comes to mind.
A number of lessons were learned along the way involving a lot of awkward moments as well as planned, spontaneous and satisfyingly hard earned successes. Learning to be adaptable to political realities and various language compromises, while keeping the overall intent and effectiveness of the bill intact, were the key lessons learned throughout this experience.
On an organizational note, having worked closely with Representative Hunt since 2003 when he was a freshman in the Oregon House of Representatives, and with a bipartisan group of influential Senators since 1999 who directed us to him – including Senator Jason Atkinson (R-Medford District), an aspiring candidate for Governor in 2010 – speaks to what it takes to get a historic bill like this passed.
Building positive working relationships with legislators through an immense amount of meaningful “face time” is the most significant factor. Other terms to describe successful lobbying practices is “on the ground presence” and “real player,” which represents the enormous amount of time, sacrifice, and labor that it takes. In this sense, the entire government relations team of the Northwest Religious Liberty Association (NRLA) has been “called for such a time as this” in the states of Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington. While we always have improvements to make, our team of Capitol Pastors, attorneys, and administrative advisors, do excellent work and serves as a mighty testament as to why more excellent government relations programs like ours need to be developed in a truly serious and professional way in every state.
A special “thank you” to the entire team who helped us with our efforts is in order. They include 1) Attorney Michael Peabody, who testified with yours truly in a convincing and eloquent manner at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing; 2) Attorney Steve Green, Law Professor at Willamette College of Law, who was simply brilliant; 3) Oregon Labor Commissioner, Brad Avakian, a powerful advocate in our corner, along with Speaker of the House, Dave Hunt, who testified together with me at the same table at the House Judiciary Committee hearing; 4) David Miller, a faithful Seventh-day Adventist truck driver who testified at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing; 5) Shani Balverio, a faithful Seventh-day Adventist food service specialist, who also testified at the same hearing; 6) Douglas Clayville, our Capitol Pastor or Representative, who made numerous and much appreciated scheduled “team visits” to legislators with me; and 7) Rhonda Bolton, NRLA’s much appreciated Administrative Assistant, whose coordination and editing services were invaluable when it came to issues of timeliness, coherence, and professional copy appearance of all lobbying materials and official documents.
The Future
With the Oregon Workplace Religious Freedom Act now in place, over the next couple of legislative sessions the Northwest Religious Liberty Association (NRLA) plans to initiate similar legislative bill proposals in each of the other Northwest states. If the United States Congress enacts federal legislation mirroring Oregon’s example, then such a state-by-state effort may be unnecessary.
What the Oregon bill accomplishes is a narrowly tailored model for the federal government to follow in its efforts to see similar protections put forward for people of faith, including religious minorities. If adopted at the federal level, it would promise to help all people of faith and employers in each state of the country.
Last year, when I was in Washington, D.C., making scheduled visits with lawmakers, it was indicated to me by the chief legislative advisor in US Senator Orin Hatch’s (R-Utah) office that both he and Senator John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) were watching closely (and debating over) the legislative effort in Oregon as a model to follow. This is because the Oregon model narrowly addresses religious accommodations involving 1) holy days and 2) the wearing of hazard-free religious apparel or clothing, and not the big “kitchen sink” approach that has often included other specific religious exemptions treating accommodation requests with distinctively moral concerns in the workplace (i.e., the dispensing of the Plan-B pill by Pharmacists and other health care concerns). Political realities, as such, however, caused the Northwest Religious Liberty Association (NRLA) to take a different path, believing that such moral concerns, while important, should be raised in separate bill proposals so as not to year-after-year continually disable, defer, and defeat the narrow but equally worthy need to satisfy the larger purpose of Workplace Religious Freedom Act efforts, both at the state and federal levels, which is to specifically address holy day accommodation requests in the workplace which drives the vast majority of religious discrimination claims.
Some will argue to the contrary, but Oregon’s Workplace Religious Freedom Act is not an unconstitutional “affirmative action” bill for religious minorities and thus a governmental establishment of religion, even though religious minorities are incidentally benefited. [See Estate of Thornton v. Caldor, Inc. (472 U.S. 703) 1985.] The clear intent of the bill is that it will be equally representative of accommodation requests that emanate from all people of faith in two specific areas – holy day and religious apparel accommodation requests. While it may exclude other religious or morally related accommodation requests, particularly in health care related areas, it does not exclude anyone of faith in regard to holy day and religious apparel accommodation requests. While it may incidentally benefit religious minorities in the workplace, the language of the bill is inclusive and directly benefits all people of faith, as well as employers in terms of lowering the number of litigation claims against them, as has been demonstrated in New York since 2006.
Once the Oregon Workplace Religious Freedom Act becomes law, it is bound to face some tough legal challenges in the courts, state and possibly federal. But that is to be expected. Our efforts in providing a more coherent standard for religious accommodation requests on the one hand, and “undue business” standards for employers on the other, was a proactive one and an intelligent step forward.
Thank You!
In conclusion, THANKS SO MUCH FOR YOUR UPLIFTING PRAYERS AND SUPPORT! We could not have done it without you and without God’s guiding hand! Thanks again!
The Northwest Religious Liberty Association, organized in 1906, and reorganized in 1991, serves the states of Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington through its team of government relations representatives and attorneys. The Northwest Religious Liberty Association partners with the North American and International Religious Liberty Associations to defend religious freedom here and abroad. Visit the Northwest Religious Liberty Association online at http://www.nrla.com
Oregon Senate Judiciary Committee hears testimony on the Oregon Workplace Religious Freedom Act
SALEM, OREGON - On April 9, 2009, the Oregon Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony on the Oregon Workplace Religious Freedom Act (SB 786). House Speaker Dave Hunt, Bureau of Labor and Industry director Brad Avakian, and Senator David Nelson led the testimony in favor of the bill followed by Northwest Religious Liberty Association president Gregory Hamilton, attorney Michael D. Peabody, and two employees who would benefit from SB 786, David Miller and Shani Balverio. Willamette College of Law professor Steven Green, former general counsel for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, also testified on behalf of SB 786.
SB 786 would clarify the definition of the term “undue hardship” and provide a series of factors that employers can apply in determining whether or not they can honor an employee’s request for religious accommodation in the areas of holy day observance and religious dress requirements.
This is an effort that has been spearheaded for the past few years by the Northwest Religious Liberty Association president Gregory Hamilton.
ONLINE RESOURCES:
1. Testimony of Northwest Religious Liberty Association president Gregory Hamilton in support of SB 786
2. Testimony of Attorney Michael D. Peabody in support of SB 786