As a result of the U.S. Supreme Court's 1997 ruling that the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act does not apply to states and the court's 2014 ruling exempting closely held for-profit corporations such as Hobby Lobby from federal law based on religious grounds, businesses and institutions are seeking to expand religious exemptions, an issue brief from the Movement Advancement Project finds. According to the brief, State and Federal Religious Exemptions and the LGBT Community (6 pages, PDF), twenty-one states — accounting for 43 percent of the LGBT population — have broad religious exemption laws. Moreover, in 2015, seventeen state legislatures have introduced at least one religious exemption bill — often with the intention of allowing businesses to refuse to serve same-sex couples and enable adoption agencies to reject same-sex couples as potential parents. The vague language of and increasing roster of both broad and targeted exemptions, the brief argues, are being used to harm others, interfere with law enforcement, and undermine the rule of law.