By refusing to renew an executive anti-discrimination order, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has paved the way for faith-based discrimination in the state, Sandhya Bathija writes for Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. The order, issued by Jindal’s predecessor Gov. Kathleen Blanco, prohibited discrimination in government services, hiring, or business contracting on the basis of religion, disabilities, race, gender, political affiliation, and sexual orientation. Jindal maintains that such anti-discrimination measures and “additional categories of special rights” are unnecessary. Bathija insists that the governor’s so-called “common sense approach” opens the door for companies to discriminate in hiring and employee treatment. She writes that Jindal is merely “catering yet again to his Religious Right friends at the Louisiana Family Forum… a group that seeks to ‘persuasively present biblical principles’ in political and other issues.”
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