Brownback is a conservative Republican, and many people expected him to sign the statute. But there was no open signing ceremony, photographs or any fanfare, In fact, the governor’s office did not even announce the signing until four days after he acted.
The new law will take effect in July.
Most state legislatures have now adjourned for the year. This session, bills to ban Sharia law were before the legislatures in 23 states. Kansas and South Dakota passed such bills this year, joining four other states that passed such legislation in previous years—Arizona, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Tennessee.
The Alabama State Senate voted to postpone its bill indefinitely, which effectively kills it. In Minnesota and New Jersey, when the sponsors learned more about what the bill represented, they withdrew their bills.
In Oklahoma, a bill was introduced to try to enact legislation that would not be invalidated by the courts, as was a constitutional amendment approved two years ago in Oklahoma by a 70 percent margin of the state’s voters. The new bill tries to do that by not citing Sharia law in the text. The new bill was approved by the House in March of last year, but the Senate Committee to which it was referred did nothing and it died this week when the legislature adjourned.
The bills passed by the other four states avoid mentioning Sharia in the text, and the bills pending in other states also do not contain the word. But debates over the legislation routinely mention Sharia as the fear and the target of the legislation.
In the following eight states, the bills are still pending: Alaska, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Virginia.
In the following 10 states, the bills died when the legislatures adjourned: Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma and West Virginia. New bills can be reintroduced next year in any state.