Press Release: Nebraska Should Protect First Amendment Rights of Teachers

For Immediate Release
January 17, 2017

Contact: Nate Grasz
Policy Director, Nebraska Family Alliance
nate@nebraskafamilyalliance.org
402-477-3191

Nebraska Has a Responsibility to Protect First Amendment Rights of Teachers

LINCOLN, NE: Today, members of the Nebraska Legislature had the opportunity to address an important piece of legislation before the Education Committee.

LB62, introduced by Speaker Scheer, would remove the prohibition on teachers wearing religious garb by repealing sections 79-898 and 79-899 of Nebraska Revised Statutes and restore the Constitutionally protected freedoms of our public school teachers.

Originally adopted to to prevent Catholic nuns from wearing the habit in classrooms, 36 states at one point had similar anti-religious garb statutes. Nebraska is now one of the last remaining states to never repeal them.

Nate Grasz, Policy Director for Nebraska Family Alliance, testified in support of the bill.

“These statutes are a violation of Nebraskans’ First Amendment freedoms and should be repealed. By passing LB62 the state can remain religiously neutral and simultaneously avoid trampling the First Amendment rights of teachers. Religious freedom is a fundamental right that all are entitled to exercise, and in a society of great diversity and tolerance, should not be abandoned at the schoolhouse gate.” -Nate Grasz

The right to live and work according to your beliefs is a critical component of any free society, because religious or not, religious freedom protects every citizen by assuring them that the government is not the gatekeeper of their conscience.

Nebraska Family Alliance is proud to support the First Amendment rights of all Nebraska citizens, and encourages the Education Committee to advance LB62 to the full state legislature.

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