In two separate interviews with EWTN News, GOP presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Mike Huckabee pledged to make the passage of the First Amendment Defense Act a priority in the first 100 days of their administrations.
From Washington Blade:
In the 1930s, President Roosevelt promised the American people in his first 100 days in office he would push for passage of “New Deal” legislation aimed to lift the country out of Depression. Eighty years later, Republican presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Mike Huckabee are promising to use the same span of time to enact a religious freedom bill seen to enable anti-LGBT discrimination...
The First Amendment Defense Act — introduced by Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) in the U.S. House and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) in the U.S. Senate — on its face prohibits the federal government from taking action against individuals who oppose same-sex marriage, although individuals is defined broadly in the bill to include for-profit businesses.
But critics say the legislation would go further and enable anti-LGBT discrimination — as well as potential bias against single mothers and unmarried couples. Among other things, it would allow government workers to refuse to issue marriage licenses for same-sex couples and compromise President Obama’s executive order barring federal contractors from engaging in anti-LGBT bias.