Tallahassee, Florida – Today, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that Florida’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act (“FRFRA”) expands protection for religious freedom. Mathew D. Staver, President and General Counsel for Liberty Counsel, personally drafted and lobbied for Florida’s RFRA which became law in 1998. Liberty Counsel also filed an Amicus Brief with the Florida Supreme Court explaining the legislative intent of FRFRA.

Today’s opinion in Warner v. City of Boca Raton held that religious freedom in Florida is entitled to greater protection than under the United States Constitution. The Court stated, “We hold that the FRFA expands the scope of religious protection beyond the conduct considered protected by cases from the United States Supreme Court. We also hold that under the Act, any law, even a neutral law of general applicability, is subject to the strict scrutiny standard where the law substantially burdens the free exercise of religion.” The Supreme Court also held that FRFRA “protects more conduct than conduct that is central to a litigant’s religious practices.” Under FRFRA, for example, a person can have a religious belief to home school even if home schooling is not an express itemized doctrine of the church. The Court said, “a person must only establish that the government has placed a substantial burden on a practice motivated by a sincere religious belief.” A religious belief is substantially burdened if the government either “compels the religious adherent to engage in conduct that his religion forbids or forbids him to engage in conduct that his religion requires.”

In reaching its decision, the Court cited to two zoning cases, one involving First Baptist Church of Perrine, which sought to expand its Christian school and another case involving a feeding program for the homeless. The Court approved of the latter ruling (which acknowledged free exercise rights) and disapproved of the ruling in First Baptist Church (rejecting free exercise rights). The First Baptist Church case was litigated by Liberty Counsel. In that case, the lower Florida appeals court ruled that the Miami zoning law which prohibited the church from building a school did not violate FRFRA. Liberty Counsel won an almost identical zoning claim under FRFRA in the Jesus Fellowship case before the same appeals court. Now that the Florida Supreme Court has sided with our arguments, which were rejected in the First Baptist Church decision, we intend to reopen that case and press forward with the church school.

Staver stated, “We are pleased that Florida’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act grants expansive religious free exercise rights, even more so than the U.S. Constitution. I drafted the law to offer greater protection to freedom of religion than was available under United States Supreme Court precedent.” Staver also stated, “Protecting the free exercise of religion is one of the first duties of government. The greatness of government can be measured by its commitment to protecting religious freedom.”