A North Dakota ballot intitative appears designed to allow anti-gay groups to openly defy bans on discrimination, and it is written so expansively that it could authorize thousands of North Dakotans to outright ignore everything from traffic lights to medical access laws — all in the name of supposedly protecting religous liberty. Under the proposed state constitutional amendment, which appears on state ballots June 12:

Government may not burden a person’s or religious organization’s religious liberty. The right to act or refuse to act in a manner motivated by a sincerely held religious belief may not be burdened unless the government proves it has a compelling governmental interest in infringing the specific act or refusal to act and has used the least restrictive means to further that interest. A burden includes indirect burdens such as withholding benefits, assessing penalties, or an exclusion from programs or access to facilities.

To translate this a bit, many states and the federal government exempt religious believers from some laws that “substantially burden” their religious faith. The North Dakota initiative, however, targets any law that merely “burdens” a person’s religious faith. In other words, even the most minor inconveniences to religious practices would be suspect under the initiative. A person who is running late to church could claim it is illegal to make them obey traffic lights.

Worse, the law could have severe consequences for gay men, lesbians and other groups disfavored by the religious right. As law professor Marci Hamilton explains, the initiative appears worded to bypass the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez which held that anti-gay groups cannot force state universities to fund them in violation of the university’s anti-discrimination policy.

Nor is the initiative the only example of the religious right trying to be above the law. An appeals court in New Mexico recently rejected an argument by an anti-gay business owner which could have exempted New Mexicans from any anti-discrimination law — including bans on race and gender discrimination — that they have a religious objection to. Similarly, conservatives ranging from the Catholic Bishops to Speaker John Boehner claim that the Constitution gives them sweeping immunity from laws they disagree with. Even conservative Justice Antonin Scalia has rejected the bishops’ view.

ThinkProgress intern Angela Guo contributed to this post.

Though Gov. Rick Scott (R-FL)’s administration has now said it will not follow the Department of Justice’s order to end its voter roll purge, a Republican county elections supervisor’s spokeswoman told ThinkProgress she will not resume the purge effort.

Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections Deborah Clark (R) released a statement last Friday saying that her office would not continue the purge:

The accuracy of the voter registration database is of the utmost importance and we will continue our efforts to ensure the information is current. However, we will not use unreliable data.

When asked whether the Scott administration’s decision to defy the Department of Justice order changed anything, Clark spokeswoman Nancy Whitlock told ThinkProgress “No. Ms. Clark’s position remains as stated [on Friday].”

Pinellas County had initially purged 14 voters who the state suspected might not be citizens, but reinstated them when it became clear that Scott administration’s list of “sure-fire non-citizens” was riddled with a gigantic number of errors and the DOJ announced that the purge violated both the Voting Rights Act and the National Voter Registration Act.

Whitlock noted that Clark and other Florida elections supervisors had questioned “not only the accuracy of the information, but also the timing after learning that the state had the list of voters more than a year prior to distributing it.”

In a letter released this afternoon, Congressman Tom Rooney (R-FL) accuses Attorney General Eric Holder of “supporting voter fraud in Florida.” According to Rooney, Holder is assisting in voter fraud, which is a crime, for the purpose of “aiding the President’s reelection campaign.” Rooney claims Holder of “actively working to enable voter fraud and allow illegal immigrants to cast votes in the state of Florida.”

Late last week, the Justice Department informed the State of Florida that the large purge of registered voters ordered by Governor Rick Scott was illegal and should be ended.

More from Rooney’s letter to Eric Holder:

Florida has uncovered a widespread problem of illegal and erroneous voter registration, exposing as many as 182,000 registered voters as non-U.S. citizens. The Department of Justice has an obligation to work with the state to prevent voter fraud and ensure that illegal votes are not cast, yet your department has consistently obstructed Florida’s efforts and has been either unresponsive or outright hostile to legitimate requests for information.

…Your actions further demonstrate that the Department of Justice, under your leadership, is more concerned with protecting the reelection prospects of the President than with upholding justice and enforcing the rule of law.

Rooney’s belief that 182,000 registered voters in Florida have been identified as non-U.S. citizens is not even shared by Scott. Thus far, the governor has only forwarded around 2700 names for county election officials to purge from the rolls.

Among this much smaller list, local election officials have found hundreds of fully eligible U.S. citizens. As a result of the rampant errors — and the Justice Department letter declaring the purge illegal — all 67 county election supervisors, including many Republicans, have decided to suspend the process.

Further Rooney’s assertion that voter fraud is a widespread problem is contradicted by Florida election officials and law enforcement data.

The State of Florida has until today to formally respond to the Justice Department. All indications, however, are that they plan to defy the DOJ and press forward with disenfranchising voters.

You can read the Department of Justice letter detailing the legal problems with Florida’s voter purge here.