How Florida became America's leading religious-freedom defender under DeSantis: report

The Sunshine State ranks as the nation's number one defender of religious liberty out of all 50 states, according to the First Liberty Institute's fourth annual Religious Liberty in the States (RLS) index. 

The index uses a detailed scoring system measuring legal protections and ranking states based on the percentage of possible safeguards they have adopted. 

The index's accompanying report points out that Florida "is an exemplar" for how state lawmakers can improve their protections around religious freedom. According to the report, the Sunshine State has improved nearly 20 percentage points since the first RLS index was released in 2022.

"This year's findings show clearly that states taking legislative action are pulling ahead," added Kelly Shackelford, president, CEO and chief counsel at First Liberty. "Under the leadership of Gov. DeSantis, Florida passed real laws that protect real people, and now the Sunshine State is the national leader in protecting religious liberty. It's time for more states to follow Gov. DeSantis's example and adopt strong religious liberty laws."

Per the 2025 RLS report, almost all of Illinois' protections came when the state was more conservative between 1934 and 1998.

The First Liberty Institute said the results of the 2024 election may give some people the idea that passing laws protecting religious liberty is not as important, but the conservative Christian legal group warned this is "emphatically not the case," noting that data shows passing such laws is just as critical amid a "favorable" political climate.