One of the members calls A Presidential Medal of Freedom to The baker who refused to make the wedding cake For same-sex couples.
Another calls for court interventions by the Justice Department on behalf of Amish parents fighting New York’s vaccine requirements and Catholic nuns challenging that state’s requirement that they accommodate the gender identities of hospice patients.
And the chair Religious Freedom Commission He calls for a federal hotline that has this automated recording: “There is no separation of church and state.”
These are just some recommendations Advisory committee members Formed by President Donald Trump last year, it wants to be included in the commission’s final report.
This report is still in preparation, but committee members had the opportunity to describe their wish lists during their last meeting in April. There was little opposition because the commissioners, most of whom were chosen Trump base Conservative Christian supporters covered the items they wanted in the report.
Their ideas reflect prevailing views on the definition of religious freedom among many conservative Catholic and evangelical activists: increasing avenues for religious expression in public schools; expanding opportunities for religious organizations to receive public funds; and allowing religious exemptions in areas ranging from labor law to classroom lessons to health care mandates.
These views were also reflected in supreme court The decisions issued in recent years were largely conservative.
Critics of the commission say it embodies the one-sided view of Trump supporters and threatens an established constitutional separation of church and state, despite the president’s claims.
A lawsuit filed by a progressive interfaith coalition says the commission failed to comply with federal law that requires advisory committees to include diverse members and viewpoints.
The lawsuit echoes criticism that Most of the commissioners They are conservative Christian clergy and commentators. One of them is an Orthodox Jewish rabbi. The coalition says members affirmed that America is specifically Judeo-Christian or Christian nation He notes that most of the committee’s meetings were held at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, a Christian-led institution.
The Republican administration is asking a federal court to dismiss the lawsuit. The government cites legal technicalities and asserts that the law does not specify how balanced a committee should be or which views should be represented.
Another entity created by Trump – the task force Eliminate anti-Christian bias – He issued a report saying that Christians faced discrimination under the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden in areas such as education, the tax code, and the prosecution of anti-abortion protesters. Progressive groups said the report failed to document systemic discrimination, focused on causes favored by conservative Christians, and served as advocacy rather than investigation.
In a further tangle of Trump-related initiatives, several members of the Religious Liberty Commission are scheduled to participate in a May 17 prayer service marking the country’s upcoming 250th birthday. Many have also participated recently Bible reading marathon Largely organized in the Museum of the Bible.
The committee showed mostly agreement among members, with one interesting exception. One commissioner, Carrie Prejean Buehler, He was ousted in February After a controversial hearing on anti-Semitism.
Committee Chairman Dan Patrick said that Brijean Buehler sought to “hijack” the hearing, in which she had heated exchanges with witnesses about the definition of anti-Semitism and defended commentator Candace Owens, denying her record of anti-Semitic statements. Brijean Boller, a Catholic, confirmed that she was wrongly expelled for expressing her beliefs.
In other hearings, witnesses described how they challenged workplace regulations that they said conflicted with their conservative religious values on sex, abortion, COVID-19 vaccines and more. Some said they were banned, at least temporarily, from displaying a religious symbol at work or trying to sing a Christian hymn in a school talent show.
At the anti-Semitism hearing, Jewish witnesses spoke of being harassed and threatened Campus of pro-Palestinian protests Against Israel. The committee also heard from some Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and other witnesses.
However, critics said the commission focused mostly on conservative Christian grievances and right-leaning political grievances.
The Rev. Paul Brandeis Rauschenbusch, president of the Progressive Interfaith Alliance, one of the groups that filed a lawsuit over the commission’s formation, said the commission’s omissions are as important as what it focuses on.
He said the commission failed to adequately address issues such as anti-Muslim efforts in Texas and elsewhere, as well as the rise of anti-Semitism on the right, not just the left.
Rauschenbusch said he was particularly concerned about the committee chairman’s challenge to the idea of separation of church and state.
Patrick, a Republican who serves as lieutenant governor of Texas, has repeatedly denounced the concept embedded in Supreme Court precedent.
“We have to say there is no separation of church and state,” Patrick said at the April meeting. “That’s a lie.” He suggested printing “a million posters” for this purpose.
No one disagreed at the committee meeting.
Trump made similar comments at a White House prayer service in 2025. “They say separation of church and state,” Trump said. “I said, ‘Okay, let’s forget about it for once.’
While the phrase “separation of church and state” does not appear in the Constitution, twentieth-century Supreme Court decisions have cited Thomas Jefferson’s description of the First Amendment as creating a “wall of separation between church and state.” The Court applied the First Amendment’s ban on any church “establishment” to the states as well as the federal government, citing the Fourteenth Amendment’s ban on states denying the rights of citizens.
Since then, courts have grappled with how to balance freedom of religion with freedom from government-sponsored religion.
Patrick advocated prayer and the dissemination of the Ten Commandments in public schools.
“I have no malice toward anyone who doesn’t have any kind of faith,” Patrick told his fellow commissioners. “That’s good. This is what America is about. But these organizations that are driven by some ideology and paid by someone’s bank account that want to remove God from our country? We need to respond.”
On other issues, several commissioners called for schools and workplaces to be required to post notices about religious expression rights and exemptions.
Some have called for full pay and retirement benefits to be restored to military service members discharged for refusing COVID-19 vaccines.
Bishop Robert Barron, of the Catholic Diocese of Winona-Rochester in Minnesota, called for religious groups like Catholic Charities to be able to receive federal funds without compromising the church’s traditional teachings on the family.
He also said that detained Catholic immigrants should enjoy humane treatment and access to the sacraments, and that immigration agents should not disrupt worship services in enforcement actions. The administration last year rescinded a policy against immigration enforcement at sanctuaries, which other religious leaders said should never have been enforced.
Kelly Shackelford, president and CEO of the legal organization First Liberty Institute, called for new requirements requiring governments to pay all legal bills if they lose a religious freedom case. He said many individuals lack the money to challenge the government in court.
“It would be a massive shift in power for the benefit of the citizens,” he said.
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP cooperation With The Conversation US, funded by Lilly Endowment Inc., the AP is solely responsible for this content.