Arkansas enacted Act 677 shielding government workers and licensed professionals who refuse duties over religious beliefs about marriage or sex

On April 16, 2025, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed HB1615 into law as Act 677 of the 2025 Regular Session, styled the "religious nondiscrimination" act. Sponsored by Rep. Robin Lundstrum (R-Elm Springs), the bill cleared the House 66-17 and the Senate 29-5. The statute prohibits the state from denying a license, certification, contract, grant, or employment benefit to a person or organization on the basis of a "sincerely held religious belief, including a belief about biological sex or marriage," unless doing so is essential to further a compelling governmental interest through the least restrictive means.

The law reaches several settings at once. It bars occupational-licensing bodies and public educational programs from requiring applicants or students to provide services that conflict with such beliefs; it protects religious organizations and individuals from adverse action for declining marriage-related services; and it expressly permits government employees authorized to license or solemnize marriages to seek recusal on religious grounds. It also shields state employees from discrimination for speech or conduct consistent with beliefs about biological sex or marriage, in and outside the workplace.

In committee testimony, Arkansas residents — including social workers, therapists, and attorneys — warned that the measure would let officials and licensed professionals turn away LGBTQ+ people, and that a clerk's recusal from issuing a marriage license could force same-sex couples in rural areas to travel long distances to obtain one. By writing religious-belief exemptions into the provision of government services and the terms of professional licensure, the act disadvantages LGBTQ+ Arkansans and gives preferential standing in public policy to particular religious views about marriage and sex.