Republican 2016 candidate Gov. Chris Christie may be put on the spot if a bill retaliating against religious freedom laws makes it through the New Jersey state legislature.

The recently introduced bill would prohibit state-sponsored travel to any state that has a religious freedom law but does not have an anti-discrimination law. If enacted, the law would impact state colleges and universities, as well as businesses and government entities.

The bill, NJA4448, specifies that, “no department, division, office, board, bureau, commission, authority, or other instrumentality of the State of New Jersey, or any public institution of higher education that receives State funds, shall approve a request for travel to be paid, in whole or in part, out of State funds or otherwise sponsored by the State, to any state of the United States that has adopted a law to protect religious freedom without instituting in such law or other statute protections against discrimination in the provision of goods or services to the public.”

An Indiana law signed by Gov. Mike Pence in April sparked a nationwide debate over religious freedom and discrimination based on sexual orientation. Pence’s law officially went into effect on July 1, despite arguments that the law would allow businesses to discriminate against gay customers.

Democratic governors in New York and Connecticut have both issued bans on all non-essential state-sponsored travel to Indiana in response to the religious freedom law. However, the democratic lawmakers in New Jersey may be blocked from taking similar action. Christie has defended Pence, along with most of the other Republican 2016 candidates.

If enacted, this law would affect any New Jersey college that receives state funds. Due to the language of the bill, any institution of higher education that receives state funds from New Jersey would be forced to deny any request for funding or sponsorship to the states covered by the bill.

The exceptions to this bill are very limited when it comes to how they would affect college travel, including school sports teams and academic teams that travel out of state for competitions. Unless partial or full sponsorship or funding is "required due to an emergency, or for law enforcement or contractual purposes, or to protect the public's health, safety, and welfare," then anyone from the college could be denied funding.

There are currently 20 states that have a Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and 16 of them do not have a separate anti-discrimination law.

This article is from Red Alert Politics’ Campus Correspondent Program. Would you like to contribute a story from your school? Apply here to be a Campus Correspondent for RAP!