The First Liberty Institute this week released its fifth annual report on Religious Liberty in the States (full text). According to First Liberty:
The 2026 index evaluates 50 distinct legal protections, grouped into 20 safeguards, that states can adopt to support religious freedom in daily life from education and health care to family law, economic life, and religious practice. As with previous editions, the index tracks changes over time and ranks each state based on the percentage of possible safeguards it has adopted.
The top 5 states in this year's index are Arkansas, Tennessee, Florida, Montana and Illinois.
