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2001 SESSION

011719636
HOUSE BILL NO. 1692
Offered January 10, 2001
Prefiled December 15, 2000
A BILL to amend the Code of Virginia by adding a section numbered 57-2.02, relating to affirmation of religious freedom.
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Patron-- Black
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Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice
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Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That the Code of Virginia is amended by adding a section numbered 57-2.02 as follows:

§ 57-2.02. Religious freedom affirmed; definitions; applicability; construction; remedies.

The state control of a person's exercise of religion is, by definition, state-established religion. The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom warns that to allow a civil magistrate the power to restrain a person's religious exercise based on that magistrate's opinion that such exercise is a detriment to society or the State "is a dangerous fallacy, which at once destroys all religious liberty."

A compelling state interest test grants any civil magistrate such power. The Virginia and U.S. Constitutions provide no authority for any legislative body, executive, or court to grant such power to a civil magistrate. No authority exists, therefore, for any governmental entity to burden a person's unalienable, free exercise of religion for any reason. For religion, or the duty that a person owes to the Creator, is under the exclusive jurisdiction of God. A person's religious exercise can be directed only by reason and conviction and not by force and violence under the state's police power.

A. No government entity shall burden a person's free exercise of religion, which is among the natural rights of mankind.

B. No civil magistrate shall intrude his powers into the field of opinion to restrain the profession or propagation of a person's religion on supposition of there being a compelling state interest to do so.

C. No civil magistrate shall direct the discharge of the duty that a person owes to the Creator including, but not limited to, discharge of a person's parental duty to train the person's child in religious matters.

D. Definitions as used in this section.

"Religion" means the duty, which we owe to our Creator as set forth in Article I, Section 16 of the Constitution of Virginia and the First Amendment to the United States Constitution as interpreted by the U. S. Supreme Court in its decision of Reynolds v. United States, 98 U. S. 145, 25 L.Ed. 244 (1878).

"Exercise of religion" means the exercise of religion under Article I, Section 16 of the Constitution of Virginia, the Virginia Act for Religious Freedom (§ 57-1 et seq.), and the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

"Government entity" means any branch, department, agency, instrumentality of state government, or any official or other person acting under color of state law, or any political subdivision of the state.

"Compelling State interest" means any alleged state interest based on a supposition that will make a civil magistrate's opinion the rule of judgment regarding a person's exercise of the duty that person owes to the Creator, and which can be directed only by reason and conviction of the person and not by force and violence under the police power of a government entity.