Arkansas tops religious group's liberty ranking

• It also gives First Liberty another GOP-led state example for its broader push to pass laws rewarded by the index.

State of play: First Liberty president Kelly Shackelford said Arkansas moved from No. 27 four years ago to No. 1 this year.

• The index measures 50 items across 20 safeguards, said Mark David Hall, director of the Religious Liberty in the States project.
• He gave an example of health care conscience protections, which include protection for individual medical providers who object to participating in abortions, protection for hospitals, and protections in areas like sterilization, contraception, counseling and genetic counseling.

Sanders touted recent Arkansas laws and actions, including:

• Act 677, which she said protects people who hold religious views on "the fundamental biological differences between men and women."
• The Conscience Protection Act, which she said lets Arkansans live and work according to their faith. It led to the law requiring Ten Commandments displays in classrooms and state buildings, she said.
• The state's 1033 Initiative, which uses both faith communities and state resources to reach Arkansans in need.

Context: First Liberty's index is not a general survey of whether residents feel free to practice religion; it is a scorecard that reflects the group's policy priorities.

The other side: "It's deeply ironic to celebrate Arkansas as the nation's leader on religious liberty while state leaders continue to push policies that privilege certain religious beliefs, mandate religious displays in public schools, censor books, and target LGBTQ people and other marginalized communities," Megan Bailey, spokesperson for the ACLU of Arkansas, said in a statement.

• "True religious freedom belongs to all of us, not just those whose beliefs align with the people in power."

What we're watching: Whether Arkansas lawmakers pursue additional First Liberty-backed legislation in the next session to raise the state's index score further.