Lost in the flurry of overreaching legislation debated in Tallahassee during the 2011 legislative session were a number of bills that would undermine religious freedom. Some of these bills are an annual ritual, which are filed for political jockeying and then die. But this session was different.

With social conservatives fully in control of the Legislature, they achieved a top priority: passing a ballot proposal that would fundamentally alter the relationship between religion and government in Florida. While other religion-related measures died, the 2011 session was merely an opening act. Bills that failed this year will be a social-conservative priority in 2012.

On the last day of the session, the Senate passed House Joint Resolution 1471 — a ballot proposal that would repeal a vital religious-freedom protection from the Florida Constitution called the "No Aid" provision. Instead of fully vetting this controversial legislation through the legislative process, the Senate in its last hours withdrew 1471 from three committees, which had not held hearings on the bill, in order to facilitate passage.

This is unprecedented. The "No Aid" provision guarantees that no Floridian is required to support houses of worship with their tax dollars. And 1471 absolutely bars the state from prohibiting groups or individuals from obtaining state funds based on religion.

So how is this a religious freedom problem? For starters, it writes taxpayer-funded religious discrimination into our state constitution by incorporating an exemption to anti-discrimination laws that never contemplated taxpayer funding of houses of worship. As a result, under 1471, for example, a house of worship hiring a cook for a taxpayer-funded shelter could advertise "Catholics, Jews, Protestants or Muslims Need Not Apply."

The proposal also creates an unacceptable risk of taxpayer-funded proselytizing. It contains no safeguards against using taxpayer dollars for religious indoctrination or activities. Notably, religious-affiliated groups like Catholic Charities and Lutheran Social Services already lawfully receive state funds under No Aid. But they do so without using taxpayer dollars to hire on the basis of religion or for religious activities.

Perhaps most ominously, Florida could not bar funding to a religious group based on its anti-Semitic, racist or other extremist religious views under 1471. Why? Because 1471's affirmative language provides the unfettered constitutional right to taxpayer dollars for all religious groups, including religious extremists, of which there is no shortage in Florida.

So if 1471 becomes law, folks like Terry Jones from the Gainesville-based Dove World Outreach Center who believe Quran-burning is a legitimate form of protest, would have a right to taxpayer dollars.

Now that 1471 is heading to the ballot, social conservatives will undoubtedly push other threats to individual religious freedom in the 2012 session: school prayer legislation, bills permitting the teaching of intelligent design (repackaged creationism) in the public-school science classroom, and "Founding Fathers" legislation intended to teach that our government is based on the Bible and that separation of church and state is a myth.

Defeating such measures will be an uphill battle. But to preserve individual religious liberty in Florida, we must make our voices heard. Voters must be educated on the detrimental effects of 1471. During the 2012 session, bills that undermine religious freedom cannot be lost in the noise of other legislation and the chaotic pace in Tallahassee.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.