JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Florida voters could get a chance to enshrine a wide range of religious protections in schools into the state constitution next year. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s part of new legislation filed in the Florida House, but groups advocating for the separation of church and state worry the proposed amendment would be selectively applied.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <\/b><\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s just an overwhelming attack on faith throughout this country,\u201d State Representative Chase Tramont (R-Port Orange), who is sponsoring the Joint Resolution, said.<\/p>\n Tramont\u2019s proposal includes language from existing state laws like a mandatory moment of silent reflection at the start of the school day, the right to offer a prayer over the loud speaker before the start of state athletic championship games, the right of students to express their religious viewpoints on school topics and protections for students, parents, and teachers to wear clothing in line with their religious views.<\/p>\n READ: <\/b>Federal lawmakers hear horror stories of organ donation nonprofits, demand accountability<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n Tramont argued Florida leads the nation when it comes to protecting the religious freedoms of students, teachers, and parents in the state, but wants to ensure those protections stand the test of time.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause this is not policy that we\u2019re discussing here, these are constitutional, inalienable God-given rights,\u201d Tramont said.<\/p>\n But Devon Graham with American Atheists however, argues the state doesn\u2019t have a great track record when it comes to equally applying these types of laws.<\/p>\n READ: <\/b>\u2018It needs to be done\u2019: New community task force sets sights on Mathews Bridge replacement<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n In 2024, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis notably claimed the Satanic Temple was \u201cnot a religion\u201d after the church, which is recognized as such by the IRS, attempted to apply for a new school chaplain program authorized by the state earlier that year.<\/p>\n And Graham noted there are other examples as well.<\/p>\n \u201cEspecially when the Attorney General, maybe a couple weeks ago, decried a Muslim charter school taking state funds, but didn\u2019t do the same for the hundreds of Christian charter schools,\u201d Graham said.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: <\/b>Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/b><\/a>]<\/b><\/p>\n Given state law already covers everything in the amendment, Graham argued the amendment is a waste of time.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat this is, is just a reassertion of the predominant religion on everybody else whether they believe that religion or not,\u201d said Graham.<\/p>\n But Anthony Verdugo with the Christian Family Coalition of Florida argued the amendment would protect all religions equally.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: <\/b>Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/b><\/a>] <\/b><\/p>\n \u201cAnd what it does is it sends the message that this is so important to us, our first right in the U.S. Constitution is so important to us, that we are willing to amend our state constitution to reflect it as such,\u201d said Verdugo.<\/p>\n Tramont said he is working to secure a Senate sponsor. <\/p>\n The legislation would need 60 percent support in both chambers to make the 2026 ballot and 60 percent voter support next November to make it into the state constitution.<\/p>\n Click here<\/b><\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/b><\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Florida voters could get a chance to enshrine a wide range of religious protections in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":426194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,198388,127685,198386,198389,198387,3188,723,15163,17819,11561,7310,3005,48908,425,7047,16854,48911,198391,67,586,132,5230,68,198390,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-426193","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-anthony_verdugo","10":"tag-attorney_general","11":"tag-chase_tremont","12":"tag-christian_family_coalition_of_florida","13":"tag-devin_graham","14":"tag-fl","15":"tag-florida","16":"tag-god","17":"tag-house","18":"tag-jack","19":"tag-jacksonville","20":"tag-jake","21":"tag-jake_stoan","22":"tag-local","23":"tag-republican","24":"tag-senate","25":"tag-state_representative","26":"tag-tramont","27":"tag-united-states","28":"tag-united-states-of-america","29":"tag-unitedstates","30":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","31":"tag-us","32":"tag-us_constitution","33":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115666382131337691","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}