TRUMP AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
by Jeremy Dys May 2019
Two years into Donald Trump’s presidency, conservative religious voters who supported him despite reports of his personal immorality appear to have been vindicated. Religious freedom has turned out to be, as candidate Trump promised, one of President Trump’s chief priorities. And he has prioritized it to good effect.
Three months into his presidency, Trump addressed religious leaders in the Rose Garden. Among them were members of the Little Sisters of the Poor, the face of conscientious objection to the Obama-era contraceptive mandate. Trump invited two of the sisters to the stage and told them, “Your long ordeal will soon be over.” He then signed an executive order “Promoting Free Speech and Religious Liberty.”
The order committed the executive branch to discharging a duty the previous administration had neglected: “It shall be the policy of the executive branch to vigorously enforce Federal law’s robust protections for religious freedom.” The Obama administration, rather than enforce these protections, had tweaked administrative rules so as to force religious individuals and organizations into litigation to defend their right to free exercise. Though closely held for-profit corporations received hard-won relief under the Supreme Court’s decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby (2014), nonprofit ministries such as the Little Sisters of the Poor had been compelled to return to court.
The Executive Order on Free Speech and Religious Liberty ended the Obama-era aggression. The White House premised the order on the vision of the founders for “a Nation in which religious voices and views were integral to a vibrant public square,” a nation in which the faithful would be “free to practice their faith without fear of discrimination or retaliation by the Federal Government.”
President Obama famously told a deadlocked Congress, “I’ve got a pen, and I’ve got a phone.” When Congress refused to give him the legislation he wanted, he employed both pen and phone, leading many to complain that the business of lawmaking was being taken over by the administrative state. Not so President Trump on religious liberty. His executive order noted plainly: “Federal law protects the freedom of Americans and their organizations to exercise religion.” Thus, no new laws were needed. The only change required was to see to it that existing laws be fully implemented and faithfully executed.
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Fortunately, we no longer need worry about the threats to religious freedom under a possible Hillary Clinton presidency. Whether it has meant reorienting the administrative state to laws properly passed by Congress, making policy adjustments, championing legislative initiatives, putting forward judicial nominees, correcting litigation priorities, or making personnel choices to expand the religious liberty of the people while decreasing the administrative threat, President Trump’s administration has distinguished itself by a commitment to religious freedom in both word and deed.
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https://www.firstthings.com/article/2019/05/trump-and-religious-liberty