Congressional Voting on Religious Issues: The Case of the Religious Liberty Protection Act of 1999 Ivy Hamerly and Jerold L. Waltman Several studies have examined the influence of religious factors on congressional voting in a variety of policy areas. 1 Few opportunities have presented themselves, though, for observers to analyze how members of Congress might vote on an explicitly religious matter. Many of the issues analyzed previously, to be sure, have religious overtones, but they are not directly religious. Accordingly, when the House of Representatives considered the Religious Liberty Pro- tection Act (RLPA) in 1999, we were given a rare opportunity to plumb how religious factors might affect members’ votes. Was reli- gion an important dividing line when the question was called? If so, Ivy Hamerly (BA, Wheaton College; MA, PhD, University of California, San Diego) is an assistant professor of political science, Baylor University. Special interests include legislatures and Western Europe. Jerold L. Waltman (BA, Louisiana Tech University; MA, University of Denver; PhD, Indiana University) is R.W. Morrison Professor of Political Science, Baylor University. He is the author of Congress, the Courts, and Free Exercise: The Saga of RLUIPA (forthcoming), and Minimum Wage Policy in Great Britain and the United States. His articles have appeared in Policy Studies, Journal of Supreme Court History, Journal of Labor Research, Canadian Journal of Law and Society, Public Affairs Quarterly, Midwest Quar- terly, and Politics and Policy. Special Interests include comparative constitutional politics and minimum wage policy. Journal of Church and State vol. 51 no. 3, pages 454–471; doi:10.1093/jcs/csp094 Advance Access publication November 23, 2009 # The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the J. M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org 1. See Elizabeth Oldmixon, “Culture Wars in the Congressional Theater: How the U.S House of Representatives Legislates Morality, 1993 – 1998,” Social Science Quarterly, 83, no. 3 (2002), 775–88; David Yamane and Elizabeth Old- mixon, “Religion in the Legislative Arena: Affiliation, Salience, Advocacy, and Public Policymaking,” Legislative Studies Quarterly 31, no. 3 (2006): 433-60; Elizabeth Oldmixon and Brian Calfano, “The Religious Dynamics of Decision Making on Gay Rights Issues in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1993– 2002,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 46, no. 1 (2007): 55–70; and Elizabeth Oldmixon and William Hudson, “When Church Teachings and Policy Commitments Collide: Perspective on Catholics in the U.S. House of Representatives,” Politics and Religion, 1, no. 1 (2008): 113–36. 454 by guest on April 29, 2012 http://jcs.oxfordjournals.org/ Downloaded from