Will the Fulton case encourage discrimination against LGBTQ people?
In March 2020, I conducted a national survey of 3,100 individuals weighted to the U.S. census, using panels from the Qualtrics survey firm. In the survey, respondents read a short paragraph about a religious freedom case, based on real legal cases. Respondents were randomly assigned to read one of five scenarios. In the first, a Muslim truck driver claimed his religious freedom was violated when he was fired for refusing to deliver alcohol for religious reasons. In the second, a Christian truck driver made the same claim. In the third, a Christian cake baker claimed that his religious freedom rights protected him when he refused to bake wedding cakes for same-sex couples. And in the fourth, a Muslim and a Christian both claimed that their religious freedom protected them when they refused to deliver alcohol or bake cakes, respectively. A fifth group served as the control and read no religious freedom prompts.