A pending religious expression bill in the Legislature does one of two things, according to testimony Friday -- it either strikes a blow for individual liberty or makes the state vulnerable to a barrage of expensive lawsuits.

The "individual liberty" argument carried the day, with members of a Senate committee voting 4-2 along party lines to send the bill to the full Senate.

The legislation is titled "Free Exercise of Religion Without Government Interference" and is sponsored by Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan. He said the measure would protect everyday religious expressions against government institutions that have "become hostile to religion."

"This is a small step to give people religious expression freedoms," he said.

It will also lead to a lot of lawsuits, said Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff.

"There will certainly be a number of state court challenges and tests under this new law," he told members of the Senate Government Operations and Political Subdivisions Committee.

"There will be more litigation. In addition to protecting the majority or the mainstream types of religion that have been mentioned here, as soon as a kid wears a satanic T-shirt and he says it's his deeply held religious belief ... and you have some kind of restriction there, then there will be a lawsuit."

Buttars's bill states that if a governmental action "substantially burdens the free exercise of religion," the government's immunity from lawsuits is waived and the action must be shown to be necessary to "further a compelling government interest."

That raises several issues for state institutions. For example, a university could be sued if it offered classes on a night that conflicted with a student's religious practice.

"We teach classes on a Monday night. Could a student challenge that?" asked Dave Buhler, associate commissioner of public affairs for the Utah System of Higher Education. "We're just worried that this is so broad."

Dave Doty, also with the USHE, said school policies already exist to deal with situations in which requirements conflict with someone's religious beliefs.

"We should all be very careful to opening the door of government immunity," Doty said. "This does open up, potentially, a real Pandora's box."

Other examples came up as well -- a student who was forbidden from wearing a "Choose the Right" shirt to school; students who couldn't wear religious pins to school because administrators feared being sued; and the ability, or lack thereof, to sing Christmas carols on the steps of City Hall.

"The mainstream religious organizations are scared to death to show religious expression because they may be sued," Buttars said. "That fear has cloaked, across America, mainstream religion's freedom of expression.

"It's strange they sent that kid home because he had a CTR shirt on, but you can have 26 piercings and spiked green hair and nobody says anything."

Sen. Scott McCoy, D-Salt Lake City, agreed that school officials may have overreacted in the cases cited at the meeting. In fact, a representative of the American Civil Liberties Union said those students should have asked that organization to intervene.

The solution, McCoy said, is to better educate educators and public officials about what's allowed, instead of "passing a piece of legislation that could potentially open up a can of worms."

"This is a sledgehammer, and I don't think we need a sledgehammer," he said. "I think that there is another way ... a way that is not so extreme."

McCoy and Sen. Ross Romero, D-Salt Lake City, voted against moving the bill to the full Senate.

Voting in favor were Buttars and Sens. Peter Knudson, R-Brigham City; Bill Hickman, R-St. George; and Scott Jenkins, R-Plain City.

SB 111, Free Exercise of Religion without Government Interference, Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan. This bill would enact provisions creating a legal standard for the free exercise of religion.