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Florida has claimed first place in the 2025 edition of the Religious Liberty in the States (RLS) index. After being in second place in 2024, the state has improved again this year, overtaking the two-time defending leader, Illinois, which dropped…

Montana has successfully climbed the leaderboard in this year’s Religious Liberty in the States (RLS) index, ranking second by protecting 71 percent of the religious safeguards tracked in the 2025 index. Since placing 24th with a score of 40 percent…

Illinois led the nation in religious liberty protections for two years in a row, 2023 and 2024, but this year there is a new leader. In 2023, the state protected 85 percent of the safeguards the Religious Liberty in the…

What makes The Great Land score so low when it comes to religious liberty? The main culprits are the categories of sterilization and contraception refusal, areas in which Alaska received zero marks. 

In 2023, Florida was ranked number 8 among religious liberty, in 2024, it moved up to number 2, according to a new report by the Center for Religion, Culture and Democracy (CRCD).

Recent findings from the 2024 Religious Liberty in the States (RLS) report reveal a stark contrast between Maryland and Virginia in this regard, with Maryland far surpassing its southern neighbor.

The RLS annual reports assess how well states do on a range of important religious freedom protections, with the intent not only to measure the degree of protection in a state but also thereby to identify what each state can do to increase its protection.

When it comes to protecting religious freedoms, Ohio ranks highly as one of the top states, according to a study from the conservative legal group First Liberty Institute.

For the second year in a row, Illinois has ranked as the best state for religious liberty because it has the most safeguards in place, while a majority of other states continue to lack adequate protections for people of faith. 

A recent report by First Liberty Institute, the Texas-based nonprofit Christian conservative legal organization, shows which U.S. states are making good on that promise — with others falling behind.