Trumpexpands birthcontrolopt-out
Guidance delivers on campaign pledge to evangelicals.
President Trumpis allowingmore employer stoop tout of providing no-costbirthcontrol towomenby claiming religious or moral objections.
In an order WASHINGTON— that undercuts protections for LGBT people, Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a sweeping directive to agencies Friday to do asmuch as possible to accommodate thosewho say their religious freedoms are being violated.
The guidance, an attempt to deliver on President Donald Trump’s pledge to his evangelical and other religious supporters, effectively lifts a burden fromreligious objectors to prove that their beliefs about marriage or other topics are sincerely held.
Under the new policy, a claim of a violation of religious freedom would be enough to override concerns for the civil rights of LGBT people and anti-discrimination protections forwomen and others. The guidelines are so sweeping that experts on religious liberty are calling them a legal powder-keg that could promptwide-ranging lawsuits against the government.
“This is putting theworld on notice: You better take these claims seriously,” said Robin FretwellWilson, a law professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “This is a signal to the rest of these agencies to rethink the protections they have put in place on sexual orientation and gender identity.”
Trump announced plans for the directive last May in a Rose Garden ceremony wherehewas surroundedby religious leaders. Since then, religious conservatives have anxiously awaited the Justice Department guidance, hoping for greatly strengthened protections for their beliefs amid the rapid acceptance of LGBT rights. Religious liberty experts said theywould have toseehowthe guidance would be applied by individual agencies, both in crafting regulations and deciding how to enforce them. But experts said the directive clearly tilted the balance very far in favor of people of faithwho do notwant to recognize same-sex marriage.
“Except in the narrowest circumstances, no one should be forced to choose between living out his or her faith and complying with the law,” Sessionswrote. “To the greatest extent practicable and permitted by law, religious observance and practice should be reasonably accommodated in all government activity.”
The Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian law firm, called it “a great day for religious freedom.” The Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBT-rights group, called the guidelines an “all-out assault” on civil rights and a “sweeping license to discriminate.”
The new document lays the groundwork for legal positions that the Trump administration intends to take in future religious freedom cases, envisioning sweeping protections for faith-based beliefs and practices inprivateworkplaces, at government jobs, in awarding government grants and in running prisons.
In issuing the memo, Sessions is injecting the department into a thicket of highly charged legal questions that have repeatedly reached the U.S. Supreme Court, most notably in the 2014 Hobby Lobby case that said corporationswith religious objections could opt outof ahealth law requirement to cover contraceptives for women.
Thememomakes clear the Justice Department’s support of that opinion in noting that the primary religious freedom law— the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 — protects the rights not only of people to worship as they choose but also of corporations, companies and private firms.
Inwhat is likely to be one ofthemorecontestedaspects of the document, the Justice Department states that religious organizations can hire workers based on religious beliefs and an employee’s willingness “to adhere to a code of conduct.” Many conservative Christian schools and faith-based agencies require employees to adhere to moral codes that ban sex outside marriage and samesex relationships, among other behavior.
The document also says the government improperly infringes on individuals’ religious liberty by banning an aspect of their practice or by forcing them to take an action that contradicts their faith. As an example, Justice Department lawyers say government efforts to require employers to provide contraceptives to their workers “substantially burdens their religious practice.” Separately Friday, the Health andHuman Services Department allowed more employers with religious objections to opt out of the birth control coverage rule in the Affordable Care Act.
Session’s directive affirms Trump’s earlier directive to the InternalRevenue Service not to enforce the Johnson Amendment, which bars churches and tax-exempt groups fromendorsing political candidates.