A simple executive order on Day One to enforce court rulings that protect faith.
Donald Trump talked a good game on religious liberty four years ago. “We don’t punish prayer. We don’t tear down crosses. We don’t ban symbols of faith. We don’t muzzle preachers and pastors,” he said in his 2020 State of the Union address. “In America, we celebrate faith, we cherish religion, we lift our voices in prayer, and we raise our sights to the Glory of God.”
Yet as a federal judge recently observed: “Time and again the First Amendment rights of American citizens have been the subject of litigation. . . . Organizations must continually sue to keep the federal government from infringing on basic and well-settled rights to freedom of religion.” As Mr. Trump assumes office, he can change the status quo with a simple action: He can announce that Washington will stop discriminating against religion.
That might sound superfluous. The First Amendment squarely prohibits government from disfavoring people and groups because of their religious character and commitments. The Supreme Court has made clear that when governments cooperate with private groups to advance public goals—such as education, poverty alleviation, or healthcare—they may neither exclude religious organizations nor require them to secularize in order to participate. Yet over the years Congress and federal agencies have put in place an immense number of statutes and regulations, across a range of federal programs, that do exactly that.
Continue reading the entire piece here at the Wall Street Journal (paywall)
______________________
Nicole Stelle Garnett is the John P. Murphy Foundation professor of law at University of Notre Dame and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. John Meiser is a law professor at Notre Dame Law School.
Photo by joebelanger/Getty Images