Governor Ron DeSantis announces Florida ranks #1 for religious liberty in the U.S.
Press release from the Office of Governor Ron DeSantis
SARASOTA, Fla. – Today, Governor DeSantis announced Florida has earned the #1 spot on the First Liberty Institute’s Religious Liberty in the States Index. The “Religious Liberty in the States Index” is a comprehensive, peer-reviewed comparison of how all 50 states protect religious liberty through law. The index offers the most comprehensive legal analysis of religious liberty protections across all 50 states, evaluating factors such as religious exemptions, protections for religious organizations and schools, and the freedom of individuals to live out their faith in both public and private life.
“Florida holds several #1 rankings, leading the nation in education, economy, and tourism—and now, Florida is #1 in religious liberty,” said Governor Ron DeSantis. “We’re grateful for this recognition from the First Liberty Institute, which has just named Florida the #1 state in the nation for protecting religious liberty. Religious liberty is critical to the foundation and function of America, and I am proud that Florida excels in protecting this right.”
Florida has championed policies and legislation that have protected religious freedom for Floridians:
- In 2021, Governor DeSantis signed historic legislation to protect parental rights in education. The Parents’ Bill of Rights explicitly provides parents with the right to direct the upbringing and the moral or religious training of his or her minor child and allows parents to object to instructional materials that violate their religious beliefs.
- In 2021, Governor DeSantis signed legislation to require teachers in first-period classrooms in each Florida public school to set aside 1 to 2 minutes daily for a moment of silence, for prayer or other religious observance.
- In 2022, Governor DeSantis signed legislation to protect houses of worship, deeming them as essential and making it so that no emergency order authorized under the State Emergency Management Act may directly or indirectly prohibit religious institutions from conducting regular services or activities.
- In 2023, Governor DeSantis signed the strongest legislation in the nation for medical freedom. The landmark legislative package safeguarded residents’ freedom by ensuring no patient is forced by a business, school, or government entity to undergo testing, wear a mask, or be vaccinated for COVID-19. This also included Physicians Freedom of Speech, establishing the right for a healthcare provider and healthcare payor to decline participation in any healthcare service, treatment, and research that violates their sincerely held religious, moral, or ethical beliefs.
- In 2023, Governor DeSantis signed legislation to expand school choice programs to allow students in Florida to attend whatever school best fits their needs, including religious private schools.
- In 2023, Governor DeSantis signed legislation that protected the right of sports teams to provide opening remarks, including prayers, before high school athletic contests.
- In 2024, Governor DeSantis ensured order was kept on Florida’s university and college campuses last year and protected Jewish students from religious-based harassment when we saw pro-Hamas protesters try to set up encampments at our schools and harass students for being Jewish. While other states allowed their college campuses to be vandalized and taken over by antisemitic agitators, Florida held the line.
- In 2024, Governor DeSantis signed HB 931 to establish a statewide school chaplain program and authorized school districts and charter schools to allow volunteer chaplains to be on school campuses and provide additional counseling support to students.
Florida has celebrated many #1s in state rankings:
- #1 Economy by U.S. News & World Report in 2024 and 2025, and #1 by CNBC for three consecutive years.
- #1 in Higher Education by U.S. News & World Report for nine consecutive years.
- #1 in Education Freedom by the Heritage Foundation for the three consecutive years.
- #1 in Education Freedom by the ALEC Index of State Education Freedom.
- #1 on the Parent Power Index from the Center for Education Reform, reflecting its robust school choice options, including charter schools, private school scholarships and virtual education programs.
- #1 in New Business Formations since 2019, with more than 3.7 million new businesses formed in that time.
- #1 for Entrepreneurship by The Digital Project Manager in 2025.
- The fastest-growing state in the nation according to the U.S. Census Bureau, including home to 4 of the top 10 Fastest-Growing Metro Areas from 2022-2023.
- #1 State to Retire by WalletHub (2025)
- #1 State for Talent Attraction by Lightcast (2023)
- #1 on the 2025 EdChoice Friedman Index for having the most robust school choice options in the nation.
- #1 Vacation Destination for Americans for the 6th time
Florida also outperforms other states with a Triple-A (AAA) rating from every credit rating agency—Fitch, S&P, and Moody’s for several years running.
For more information about the First Liberty Institute’s Religious Liberty in the States Index, visit religiouslibertyinthestates.com.
Our tax dollars paid for Ronnie’s propaganda poster. Is his wife still running?
The Hope Florida scandal may have deflated Casey’s hope for running for governor. But it looks like DeS is still posturing for the White House despite his crushing failure in the last round.
Ol’ Pudding Fingers is still using state money to bring media attention to his cruelty, ignorance and hubris, which plays well with MAGA.
Hey at least republicans have primaries.
First Liberty Institute is a right wing law office who was one of the authors of Project 2025. That is the program our country is running under now, evan though Trump claimed during the campaign that he didn’t know what it was and wouldn’t institue it. If you like MAGA, you’ll love this group. I think they suck mud through a plastic straw.
Speaking of a rapid inhalation of viscous fluids…
By far the best Governor Florida has ever had. We are fortunate to have a man who stands up for his principles while continuing to support the citizens of Florida.
There are always going to be haters, however those who point fingers need to realize that they have three fingers pointing back at them.
Get involved, be active, help others!
You’ll live a happier life!
lol..religious liberty. You can’t make this crap up.
I see that DeS hasn’t yet given up his hope that he’ll land in the White House. His performative anti-woke initiatives, all orchestrated to gain media attention, are paid for by Florida citizens (and our decreasing tourism dollars as Canadians and others refuse to travel here) which is a misuse of funds. Not that anything will be done about it.
We’re spending another $5 million on his “we’re gonna be our own accreditors for state universities” which is pure anti-woke folly. If our universities aren’t accredited by national bodies, the degrees our graduates earn won’t be worth the paper they’re printed on.
His buddies are earning money hand over fist, with hurriedly-awarded contracts for boondoggles like Alligator Alcatraz, already mired in floodwaters and mosquitoes, destined to be abandoned by the end of this hurricane season.
He’s the worst governor in our history.
It’s not as if illegal immigrants should be experiencing the comfort of a bed & breakfast, with free unlimited phone calls, as your locally elected leaders have decided to give our local criminals.
Knucklehead.
Cruel and unusual punishment is outlawed and due process is guaranteed under our constitution. Both principles are being violted by ICE under the direction of Trump and with DeSantis’ help. Amazing how many supposed conservatives favor big governmment and abandonment of our rights.
I don’t know if they’re being exposed to cruel and unusual punishment. Haven’t been and thanks to my legal citizenship, won’t be.
Really alarming those who feel it’s okay to cross the United States’ borders without proper authorization but don’t bat an eye when other countries enforce theirs.
But leave it to a bunch of liberals to favor rights for criminals and illegal aliens over the rights of law abiding citizens.
Given you and I or our relatives are a few minutes or a few yards from being charged rightly or wrongly with something, criminal rights are the rights of citizens.
ICE and our president demonstrate no concern for the rights of those they suspect of being here illegally, and that includes rounding them up and shipping them to countries they are not from, but countries poor enough – and unstable enough – to need the money they get paid to place them in prisons from hell, where their leaders have said to our presidents face “they may never get out”. By most accounts at least 50% and up to 70% of those facing this have no criminal record or past and most are guilty of trying to do what our ancestors did in the last couple of centuries: Forge a new life by working their asses off. Yes, we THINK our ancestors did it legally, but becoming a citizen is very difficult now, and on purpose. You fault a working mother and father for risking it to make that better future to the point of sending them to a jail in Africa, or a concentration camp in El Salvador where our DHS Barbie can parade around them for photo ops? Given that WE NEED WORKERS HERE! because native Americans do not reproduce enough to sustain our current economy, let alone meet the demands of the growing one all politicians know we need to meet their promises, this makes no sense for the US, even if you don;t care about the immigrants.
WAKE UP! These people are not our natural enemies and they are not taking away your rights. They are humans who are protected by our constitution when they are in America. That’s the law and ICE and our president DGAF.
Key word being “citizens.”
You should wake up and stop pretending you know what I think or how I feel. I’ve never once inferred or implied my support of shipping U.S. citizens off because someone thinks they may be here illegally. I have stated, time and time again, there is a legal means of entering this country. Neither have I faulted a mother or father for trying to make a better life for themselves or their families by coming to this country, but do it legally.
People like yourself demean this country, but for some reason people still risk life and limb to get here. There’s something good about it that’s appealing. Try staying in Japan or other Eastern countries past your Visa expiration and see where that gets you or going to many others without authorization. Not going to get far.
We do need workers and there’s work out there. It’s the type of work we’re not going to convince many to perform. The manual labor, farming, roofing, you know, the tasks that we count on but take too much effort and costs way too much sweat. Hell, you can barely get people to return to their offices after Covid and you think/expect Americans to go field some crops? Some can’t even get their kids to school in an air conditioned classroom.
Is there an easy fix? No, but wanting the protection of the Constitution shouldn’t ever be a reason to violate it either.
Thanks for the dialogue. Good one.
Except for a very few limitations in our constitution – the right to vote in federal elections for instance – rights, including the bill of rights, are granted to persons in the US, not just citizens, and so the courts have held.
I don’t demean this country, though like I think everyone with any sense I have “demeaned” the actions of some persons and acts of the government I think are wrong. I am very happy I was born here and respect and cherish our rights.
There should be an organized and lawful process for those applying for asylum here – that right is written into law – as well as citizenship. Bi partisan attempts to improve on our currently failing system have been bottled up in Congress several times in the last 15 years, specifically last fall and in 2013. Not only enforcement of border security but orderly and fair processing of asylum applications with a pathway for the many who want to be here to work and who we presently need is necessary. Current enforcement is unlawful, unconstitutional, unproductive, and downright cruel.
Always happy to talk ideas and policy.
There is a lawful process, but it is anything but organized, (as you mentioned).
Unfortunately, as long as Congress is so divided, they’ll never come to a fair, reasonable and lawful compromise to get anything accomplished. They can’t even make a decision as simple as turning the clocks up or back one hour and leaving it alone. No one has done anything to drain the swamp and everything continues to get bogged down in the muck.
I don’t think that’s going to change in your or my lifetimes.
Republicans killed it procedurally in 2013 – it would have easily passed in the House but under the “Hastert Rule” (Don’t bring to floor for a vote unless majority of Republicans will vote for it), Boehner wouldn’t bring it to the floor. It had already passed in the Senate and Obama would have signed it. – and again last fall when Trump told Republicans to kill it, though it’s main author – with bi-partisan compromise – was solid conservatie Sen Langford of Oklahoma.
Today’s WaPo:
“…Trump signals that his administration is fearlessly executing mass deportations. But the numbers reveal a different reality. Since February, his administration has deported 14,700 people per month on average, according to NBC News. That’s far below Obama’s peak in 2013, when he deported 36,000 per month. And it’s not even close to the Trump administration’s reported goal of deporting 1 million people in a year.
Trump’s deportation dragnet is less effective than those of his predecessors because it is chaotic, theatrical and detached from the systems that work. Rather than effectively coordinating with local law enforcement, following rules, laws and norms, or expanding and expediting legal processing, Trump has prioritized optics over outcomes. What his administration lacks in strategy, it tries to compensate for with spectacle…”
Gift article link:
https://wapo.st/3GSbqUU
You will not complain when your produce is $8 a pound, then you will blame someone else, as you are incapable of admitting you are wrong and hateful. I bet your kids despise you.
The produce you likely refer to will never be $8 a pound. Why don’t you talk some of the homeless into working the fields instead of panhandling?
Most of us know you’ll never get them or your kids to crop anything.
If you would not do it, and I know how useless you people are, you can’t go to the bathroom without help, YOU WOULD NEVER. You’d pick ten cucumbers and pass out. We do not deserve the immigrants working slave labor in this country. Your fake king and his fascist minions don know this already because they are idiots and can’t see anything beyond the whims of the dementor.
I’m pretty confident I was picking crops before your daddy entered his pubescent years. If not, I know I’ve picked more squash, cucumbers, peppers, melons, beans, and tobacco than your prepubescent mind has ever eaten.
AMEN. High heeled Ron the Con is always going to be known as his fake king and real rapists little bottom boy. The money alone the rapist owes this state for his concentration camp is staggering.
Religious liberty means you can persecute people who do not subscribe to your faith. Ron the Con loves his fake god and all his idiot disciples.
You are a seriously nasty, mean, human being.