A bill aimed at strengthening religious freedom in the United States was approved on unanimous consent by Congress on July 27.  The passage of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 represents a culmination of more than three years’ work by religious and civil rights advocates across the United States.

Nicholas Miller, executive director of the lay Seventh-day Adventist organization Council on Religious Freedom, says that the bill is a significant step forward in recognizing and protecting the religious civil rights of prisoners.

“It’s a welcome acknowledgment that religious freedom is not something that is discarded at the prison gates,” adds Miller.  Under the law, religious dietary requirements, Sabbaths, and other religious practices of “institutionalized persons” must be accommodated unless they constitute a real threat to prison security and orderly operation, Miller explains.

According to Miller, who briefed Senate aides on the land use portion of the bill last week, the new law will also give a significant boost to churches and religious groups that find their building programs or ministries endangered by local land use and zoning decisions.  Miller says the law “restores the robust protections religious groups enjoyed prior to the 1990 Supreme Court decision that drastically cut back on First Amendment free exercise protections.”

The bill was supported by a diverse coalition of more than 70 groups including the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, the Baptist Joint Committee, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Anti-Defamation League.  President Bill Clinton is expected to sign the bill into law.