Indiana's Hate Bill Is Dead

Indiana's hate bill has been shelved, doubtlessly because of the outcry from the right and the left about Arizona's bill.

"I didn't quite understand the firestorm it would create," Rep. Eric Turner, the provision's author, told the House Ways and Means Committee. The committee narrowly approved the provision on Monday, slipping it into an unrelated bill and quickly stirring controversy on social media. Within a few hours, House Speaker Brian Bosma announced the measure would be sent back to Ways and Means for further discussion. By this morning, the panel quickly decided to remove it. The flare-up briefly thrust Indiana into a national debate over the role religion should be allowed to play in business decisions. The Indiana proposal would have allowed any school, college, or religious institution affiliated with a church to make employment decisions based on religion, even if those organizations have a contract with the state. Turner, who also authored the contentious constitutional same-sex marriage ban that has dominated most of the 2014 legislative session, said he had no intention of entering another national fray.