Athens - Republican delegates recovering from a long night in Athens will soon face a divisive debate over the fate of a "religious liberty" proposal.
State party officials are keeping mum, but an activist who was privy to the closed-door debate said delegates endorsed a version of the bill without an anti-discrimination clause. That came despite the objections of at least two dissenters on the committee that approves resolutions who warned it could send the wrong signal to economic development interests.
The proposal stalled this year in the state Legislature amid opposition from House Speaker David Ralston and Gov. Nathan Deal. The governor, for one, said he considered the anti-discrimination language essential. GOP activists at 11 of 14 districts endorsed language without the clause. How to reconcile the competing plans could be quite a fight.
Our source says to anticipate a movement on the floor to amend the resolution with the nondiscrimination language. Expect frequent reminders of the uproar over similar bills in Arkansas and Indiana, which led to threats of boycotts, travel bans and international criticism.
In 2013, in the face of controversial resolutions, opponents fled the convention late in the day, allowing the call for a quorum that ended up dissolving the body. This time, we're told that proponents have insisted that the religious liberty proposal be considered early, shortly after 1 p.m.
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