In its first year, the Trump administration has systematically redefined and expanded the right to religious exemptions, creating broad carve-outs to a host of vital health, labor, and anti-discrimination protections.
On May 4, 2017—the National Day of Prayer—during a ceremony outside the White House, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on “Promoting Free Speech and Religious Liberty.” At the time, the executive order was reported to be a “major triumph” for Vice President Mike Pence, who, as governor of Indiana, famously signed a religious exemption law that would have opened the door to anti-LGBTQ discrimination. Among its other directives, the order instructed Attorney General Jeff Sessions to “issue guidance interpreting religious liberty protections in Federal law.” The guidance on “Federal Law Protections for Religious Liberty,” which Sessions subsequently issued in October 2017, purports to clarify existing religious liberty protections. However, in practice, it expands those provisions to improperly elevate the right to religious exemptions above other legal and constitutional rights and to shield those who would seek to use federal dollars while denying necessary services to and discriminating against LGBTQ people, women, and religious minorities.
The executive order directing Attorney General Sessions to promulgate guidance on religious exemptions was a troubling development. Throughout his career, Sessions has espoused a flawed interpretation of religious liberty that flouts the separation of church and state and favors specific conservative, evangelical Christian beliefs. For example, while he supports enacting special free exercise protections for those with anti-LGBTQ and anti-choice religious beliefs, Sessions has championed Islamophobic government policies and rhetoric.13 These concerns were borne out when Sessions issued religious liberty guidance that contained significant legal and constitutional problems.
While a few of these principles merely restate general and widely accepted principles of religious liberty law, others significantly expand upon or misinterpret Supreme Court precedent and statutory religious liberty protections. By elevating Sessions’ beliefs on religious exemptions to the same level as established precedent, these provisions provide legal cover for individuals and government agencies to ignore a host of laws and policies; moreover, they are likely to create tangible harm in various marginalized communities.
Read the full story at the Center for American Progress
