The sharpest critique yet of “religious liberty” efforts in Georgia emerged Tuesday from an unlikely source: one of the state’s top lawyers who years ago fought its fiercest battle to uphold perceived anti-gay laws.
Former state Attorney General Mike Bowers upon releasing his review became the efforts’ highest-profile critic yet — as well as an immediate target of conservatives who have made an all-out push to pass legislation they say would prevent government intrusion on faith-based beliefs.
That's because the analysis comes as the religious liberty bills' supporters try to regroup after last week's surprise committee rebellion to table Senate Bill 129 — the more likely to pass of two bills currently filed in the state Legislature — and was paid for by Georgia Equality, the state's largest advocacy group for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
“Money can make people say stupid stuff,” conservative talk show host Erick Erickson said Tuesday on RedState.com after spending Friday at the Capitol blasting GOP leaders in the Georgia Senate who participated in the rebellion.
In the state House, eight GOP members who are lawyers, led by Majority Whip Matt Ramsey, decried what they called a "shameless attempt to lend legal credibility to the hysterical and baseless political ranting of the extreme left. (Bowers') 'analysis' is not a credible legal document, but rather nothing more than a recitation of the tired scare tactics often repeated by misguided opponents on this issue."
The proposal is at the center of one of the fiercest debates this legislative session, with supporters casting it as a new line of defense to protect people of any religion from interference. Opponents warn it’s a discriminatory end run on the First Amendment that could allow business owners to cite religious beliefs to deny people service.
Bowers left no question of what he thought, saying he would mount a legal challenge if it passed: “And I’m going to whip its tail,” he said.
He echoed the words of other opponents by saying it would send the message to sought-after millennials that Georgia is “closing its mind and doors to bright young people.” The potential aftershocks, he said, include a new loophole for Ku Klux Klan members to skirt the state’s anti-mask laws and protections for parents to abuse their children under the guise of religion.
Bowers seems an unlikely champion for the cause. As the state’s top lawyer in the 1980s, he helped persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the criminalization of “homosexual sodomy.” And in 1992, he cited the state’s anti-sodomy law as just cause for rescinding a job offer to a gay attorney named Robin Shahar.
His views have since evolved, he said, though he wasn’t exactly keen on self-reflection.
“This isn’t about gay marriage. It’s not about religious freedom. It’s about the rule of law. And it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to tell you it’s a disaster,” he said, adding: “I’m not sure myself how my views have changed. But I know they have changed … and I hope for the better.”
Shahar said Tuesday that she “wholeheartedly” agreed with Bowers’ analysis, adding that his personal turnabout is a reminder that the battle for civil rights doesn’t end with a court ruling.
“The fight ends when people understand that each of us are humans and they look past stereotypes,” said Shahar, who is now Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed’s adviser on LGBT issues. “I give Michael Bowers and Georgia Equality so much credit for their courage to stand up and do that.”
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