Arizona's governor may have vetoed a bill that would have let businesses discriminate against gays on religious grounds — but advocates on both side of the debate over the bill agree that the debate over where to draw the line between "religious freedom" and protection against discrimination is just getting started. Indeed, in just the last six months, lawmakers in at least 13 states have introduced similar bills, and an ACLU lawyer notes there's been a "significant uptick" in them in recent years. "What is noteworthy in 2014 is just the sheer scope of these kinds of bills. They are broader than we had ever seen before." The new surge comes just as federal judges have begun striking down state marriage bans in some of the nation's most conservative states — including Utah and Texas — and opponents of gay marriage say those developments have made it "more urgent" that they protect "religious liberty" to let businesses refuse to serve gay people.
