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Atlanta Forward: Leadership

Paul Clement, lawyer arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. and Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp., center, speaks to the media with David Cortman, senior counsel and vice-president of religious liberty with Alliance Defending Freedom, right, following arguments in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, March 25, 2014. A divided U.S. Supreme Court debated whether companies can assert religious rights, hearing arguments in an ideological clash over President Barack Obama's health care law and rules that promote contraceptive coverage.

Credit: Andrew Harrer

Credit: Andrew Harrer

Paul Clement, lawyer arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. and Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp., center, speaks to the media with David Cortman, senior counsel and vice-president of religious liberty with Alliance Defending Freedom, right, following arguments in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, March 25, 2014. A divided U.S. Supreme Court debated whether companies can assert religious rights, hearing arguments in an ideological clash over President Barack Obama's health care law and rules that promote contraceptive coverage.
By Rick Badie
April 9, 2014

Today's moderator: Rick Badie

Rick Badie joined The Atlanta Journal-Constitution as an education reporter in 1997. A South Georgia native, he's covered the region's immigrant communities, was a feature obituary writer and opinion columnist for the AJC's Gwinnett edition.

A bill that supporters say would have expanded protections under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act was denied a floor vote during the 2014 General Assembly. That decision, notes a conservative activist, has given proponents of the so-called religious liberty bill more resolve to explain its purpose to the public. Our other guest writer calls the idea  for such a law discriminatory and unnecessary because religious liberty isn't under attack in Georgia.

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