First Amendment Defense Act

Anti-LGBTQ+ Stand-in bill

A model bill that first appeared in 2015. 84 bills in 20 states were matched to it. The full story: author, spread, ads, funding and lawsuits.

Subject
Religious exemptions
First appeared
2015
Where its text comes from
Stand-in bill. Its text is taken from an introduced bill used in place of a model-bill document: US HB 2802 (2015).
Credited to
Family Research Council
Years filed
2013–2026
States
Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, U.S. Congress, Virginia, Washington, Wyoming

Match levels

2 matched bills were filed before the template first appeared (2015) and are marked in the lists below. They may be among the template's sources rather than copies of it. How to read these pages

Bills matched to this model bill

Clear

Near-verbatim (16)

These bills carry the template's text nearly word for word.

BillStateIntroducedStatus
US SB 1598 (2015)U.S. CongressFailed
HI HB 2532 (2016)HawaiiFailed
IL SB 2164 (2016)IllinoisFailed
IL SB 64 (2018)IllinoisFailed
US SB 2525 (2018)U.S. CongressFailed
US HB 8752 (2024)U.S. CongressFailed
US HB 8774 (2024)U.S. CongressFailed
US HB 9026 (2024)U.S. CongressFailed
US HB 4121 (2025)U.S. CongressFailed
US HB 4213 (2025)U.S. CongressPending
US HB 4552 (2025)U.S. CongressPending
US HB 5304 (2025)U.S. CongressPending
US HB 5342 (2025)U.S. CongressPending
US HB 8646 (2026)U.S. CongressPending
US HB 9260 (2026)U.S. CongressPending
US SB 1808 (2013) Filed before the templateU.S. CongressFailed

16 bills

All model bills and families

Data as of November 3, 2026.