Both chambers of the Minnesota Legislature voted unanimously to restore long-standing religious freedom protections in state law. Passed on Tuesday by the Minnesota Senate and the Minnesota House of Representatives, HF 4109 now awaits Gov. Tim Walz’s signature in order to become law.
For decades, Minnesota statute has allowed religious organizations and associations to refrain from hiring individuals who do not match their faith traditions. For example, current state law ensures that Christian organizations cannot be forced to hire staff who are gay, lesbian, Muslim, etc. However, Democrats in the Minnesota Legislature put a new term in state law during the 2023 session which complicates that: “gender identity.”
When Democrats introduced this term, state law was not adjusted to make sure religious institutions can still decline to hire someone whose “gender identity” is in opposition to the religious groups’ faith.
Throughout the 2024 legislative session, Republican lawmakers made multiple attempts to ensure that religious organizations would not be forced to hire individuals whose lifestyles conflict with the religious groups’ sincerely-held beliefs. Those efforts were thwarted by Democrats both in legislative committees and on the floor of the Minnesota House.
This week, Democratic lawmakers in St. Paul changed their tune and voted with Republicans to pass bipartisan religious freedom legislation.
“It’s a great day for religious freedom in Minnesota and I encourage the governor to sign this into law as soon as possible,” said Rep. Harry Niska, R-Ramsey. “To be sure, this is not the language that I originally proposed, but it achieves the goal in my original bill of retaining for religious organizations a broad statutory exemption for both sexual orientation and gender.”
A lead Republican on this issue, Rep. Niska described the language of HF 4109 by saying “it protects institutional autonomy and the rights of association for people of faith.”
“This is a win for our state, and I thank members of the faith community and my colleagues across the aisle for working together on a solution,” added Rep. Niska.
In the Minnesota Senate, Sen. Warren Limmer, R-Maple Grove, offered the amendment which put the protections back in place. Senators ultimately approved of the amendment, and passed the final bill, by votes of 66-0.
“Religious liberty is both a fundamental and a foundational right to every American,” said Sen. Limmer. “The bill today reinstates the protections for religious organizations that every Minnesotan deserves and expects to have. At least 15 religious communities and organizations — Catholics, Muslims, Jews, Evangelical Christians, and others — have expressed their support for the restoration of the religious exemptions. Passing this amendment and the bill today secures in law the right we all have under the Constitution.”
Luke Sprinkel
Luke Sprinkel previously worked as a Legislative Assistant at the Minnesota House of Representatives. He grew up as a Missionary Kid (MK) living in England, Thailand, Tanzania, and the Middle East. Luke graduated from Regent University in 2018.
