During the April 29 edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom, correspondent Molly Henneberg reported that religious groups are concerned that under the proposed Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, "they may be prosecuted for their religious beliefs if they believe that homosexuality is a sin, that it could gag ministers who preach that, or even if a church may not want to marry a gay couple. There is concern that they could face lawsuits as well."
However, the assertion that the legislation would allow individuals or groups to "be prosecuted for their religious beliefs" is false: Section 8 of the bill states that "Nothing in this Act, or the amendments made by this Act, shall be construed to prohibit any expressive conduct protected from legal prohibition by, or any activities protected by the Constitution," and the First Amendment to the Constitution states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" (emphasis added).
Indeed, the House Judiciary Committee's report on the legislation states that the purpose of Section 8 of the bill is "to lay to rest concerns raised in the 110th Congress mark-up of the legislation, and repeated since then, that religious speech or expression by clergy could form the basis of a prosecution.
Nothing in this legislation would prohibit the constitutionally protected expression of one's religious beliefs." - via Media Matters
