SB36, the Georgia Religious Freedom Restoration Act, restricts state and local authorities’ ability to “substantially burden a person's exercise of religion” without a “compelling government interest.”

The House passed SB36 on April 2, 2025, by a vote of 96 to 70. We have assigned pluses to the yeas because this bill supports the religious liberty of Christians and other people of faith who are under political attack from radical, left-wing secular humanists. Since 1777, the Georgia Constitution has protected religious freedom. In fact, the state’s current Bill of Rights declares that every person has the “natural and inalienable right to worship God” and that “no human authority should, in any case, control or interfere with such right of conscience.” This aligns entirely with the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, which says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Addressed exclusively to “Congress,” the First Amendment limits only the federal government, reserving to the States the power to promote religious liberty consistent with the “peace and safety” of their citizens.