New York, California, West Virginia at Bottom of First-Ever State Religious Freedom Index Ranking

New York, California and West Virginia are the least protective of religious freedom according to the first-ever index ranking of the 50 states based on 11 measures of their legal protections.

Created by the The Center for Religion, Culture & Democracy (CRCD), an initiative of the Plano, Texas-based First Liberty Institute, the Religious Liberty in the States Index contained multiple surprises, beginning with the poor showing of seven of the 11 states of the Old Confederacy.

The index ranks the states on the basis of their aggregated performance as measured on 11 legal safeguards of the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom and practice. Prominent among the legal safeguards are protections for religious exemptions from health care mandates such as performing abortions and being vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus.

With the notable exceptions of Mississippi, which ranked first overall in the index, Florida, which was fourth, Tennessee, in seventh, and Alabama at 12th, the remaining states of the “Bible Belt” occupied spots in the lower half of the index.

Georgia at 39th was the lowest ranked of such states, followed by South Carolina at 38th, North Carolina and Virginia tied for 30th, Arkansas and Louisiana tied at 27th, and Texas at 25th.

Other surprises include Illinois, which shares a liberal political culture like New York and Californai, nevertheless coming in at second overall, and Maryland, which is also quite liberal, in eighth. Four Western states are in the top 10, including New Mexico in third, Washington state at fifth, Utah in sixth and Idaho in ninth.

“A great virtue of this Index is that it provides very clear and concrete opportunities for states to improve their protections of religious liberty,” said Jordan J. Ballor, director of research at CRCD. “For every state there are examples from other states — whether their neighbors or from different parts of the country —  that can be adapted and used to address gaps in their safeguards of free exercise.”