Members of Religious Liberty Commission Advisory Boards Named

As previously reported, earlier this month President Trump issued an Executive Order creating a Religious Liberty Commission.  Members of the Commission were also named at that time. Now (May 16), the White House has announced names of members of three Advisory Boards to the Commission: an Advisory Board of Religious Leaders, an Advisory Board of Legal Experts, and an Advisory Board of Lay Leaders. The Board of Religious Leaders and the Board of Legal Experts each includes Catholic, Protestant and Jewish representation. The Board of Lay Leaders includes Protestant and Muslim representation.

Forest Service Is Enjoined from Transferring Apache's Sacred Land While Cert. Petition Is Pending

As previously reported, in September 2024 a petition for certiorari was filed this week with the U.S. Supreme Court in Apache Stronghold v. United States. In the case, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals sitting en banc, by a vote of 6-5, refused to enjoin the government from transferring to a copper mining company federally-owned forest land that is of significant spiritual value to the Western Apache Indians. The Supreme Court has not yet acted on the petition.  In April 2025, the Forest Service published a notice regarding publication of its final environmental impact statement which would have the effect of authorizing moving ahead with the land transfer as soon as June 16, 2025. In Apache Stronghold v. United States, (D AZ, May 9, 2025), an Arizona federal district court granted an injunction barring the government from transferring the land until the Supreme Court either denies review or decides the appeal. Explaining its decision, the court said in part:

... [E]nough has changed to suggest that the Supreme Court, should it grant certiorari—and there is good reason to anticipate that it will grant certiorari, given the fact that the case has been relisted thirteen times for consideration ...—could change the existing precedent in a way that would necessarily change the outcome of this case....

Both sides’ positions hold water, but the Court is more persuaded by Plaintiff’s emphasis on the fundamental freedoms at stake in this case. After all, “[r]eligious liberty and the concept of free exercise are grounded in the bedrock of our founding and the structure of our system of government.”... However, the Court’s determination regarding the balance of equities need not rest on such considerations alone. Plaintiff also enumerates various harms it will suffer if the land transfer occurs during the pendency of this appeal, which affect both the balance of equities and the likelihood that it will suffer irreparable harm without an injunction....

After the transfer is completed, Plaintiff argues that the Court may lose the equitable authority to rescind the transfer later once Resolution Copper takes certain irreversible actions.... Furthermore, Plaintiff posits that if the Supreme Court were to reverse and remand this case after the land exchange occurs, Defendants could then argue that the initial preliminary injunction request—which sought to prevent that transfer from occurring—is rendered moot, and Plaintiff would have to move for a new PI seeking a mandatory, rather than prohibitory, injunction.

Reuters reports on the decision.

President Trump Issues Executive Order Creating a Religious Liberty Commission

Yesterday, President Trump issued an Executive Order (full text) establishing a Religious Liberty Commission. According to the Executive Order:

The Commission shall advise the White House Faith Office and the Domestic Policy Council on religious liberty policies of the United States.  Specific activities of the Commission shall include, to the extent permitted by law, recommending steps to secure domestic religious liberty by executive or legislative actions as well as identifying opportunities for the White House Faith Office to partner with the Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom to further the cause of religious liberty around the world.

The Executive Order also calls for the President to appoint 3 Advisory Boards to advise members of the Commission-- an advisory board of religious leaders, an advisory board of lay leaders, and an advisory board of legal experts. The White House also issued a Fact Sheet (full text) summarizing the Commission's role, saying in part:

The Commission is tasked with producing a comprehensive report on the foundations of religious liberty in America, strategies to increase awareness of and celebrate America’s peaceful religious pluralism, current threats to religious liberty, and strategies to preserve and enhance protections for future generations.

Key focus areas include parental rights in religious education, school choice, conscience protections, attacks on houses of worship, free speech for religious entities, and institutional autonomy....

The Executive Order was signed at a White House National Day of Prayer Event (video of event).

Chairman of the Commission is Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick. Vice-Chair is Dr Ben Carson.  Other members of the Commission as announced in a press release by Lt. Gov. Patrick are:  Ryan Anderson, Bishop Robert Barron, Carrie Boller, Cardinal Timothy Dolan (Archbishop of New York), Rev. Franklin Graham, Allyson Ho, Dr. Phil McGraw, Eric Metaxas, Kelly Shackelford, Rabbi Meir Soloveichik and Pastor Paula White. In addition, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Scott Turner (Secretary of Housing and Urban Development), and Vince Haley (Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy) are ex officio members of the Commission.

Catholic News Agency reports on the creation of the Commission.

UPDATE: President Trump also issued a National Day of Prayer Proclamation, declaring May 1 as a National Day of Prayer.

Wyoming Enacts State RFRA

Last week, Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon signed HB 0207, the Wyoming Religious Freedom Restoration Act (full text). The Act requires strict scrutiny of state action that substantially burden's a person's right to the exercise of religion. Wyoming is the 29th state to enact a similar statute. Catholic World Report covers these developments.

Trump Establishes White House Faith Office

Last Friday, President Trump issued an Executive Order (full text) establishing the White House Faith Office. The White House also issued a Fact Sheet summarizing the President's Executive Order and related initiatives.  The Executive Order comes less than three weeks after President Trump as part of an earlier Executive Order (full text) titled Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions revoked President Biden's Executive Order (full text) that created a White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. President Trump's new Executive Order reads in part:

The executive branch wants faith-based entities, community organizations, and houses of worship, to the fullest extent permitted by law, to compete on a level playing field for grants, contracts, programs, and other Federal funding opportunities.  The efforts of faith-based entities, community organizations, and houses of worship are essential to strengthening families and revitalizing communities, and the Federal Government welcomes opportunities to partner with such organizations through innovative, measurable, and outcome-driven initiatives.

The executive branch is committed to ensuring that all executive departments and agencies ... honor and enforce the Constitution’s guarantee of religious liberty and to ending any form of religious discrimination by the Federal Government.

The President also announced the following appointments to the White House Faith Office:  Pastor Paula White-Cain as a Special Government Employee and Senior Advisor to the Office; Jennifer S. Korn as a Deputy Assistant to the President and Faith Director of the Office; and Jackson Lane as Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Faith Engagement.

The Hill reports on the President's action. Wikipedia traces the history of similar offices in successive Administrations since that of George W. Bush. [Thanks to Scott Mange for the lead.]

2 Reports Survey the State of Religious Liberty in the U.S. in 2024

Two broad reviews of the state of religious liberty in the United States were released yesterday. Becket Fund for Religious Liberty released the 6th edition of its Religious Freedom Index: American Perspectives on the First Amendment (full text). The 119-page report is based on an online poll of a nationally representative sample of 1000 American adults conducted by an independent research company. The report says in part:

The survey consists of 21 annually repeating questions that cover a broad range of topics, from the rights of religious people to practice their respective faiths to the role of government in protecting religious beliefs. The responses to these questions are broken down into six dimensions: 1) Religious Pluralism, 2) Religion and Policy, 3) Religious Sharing, 4) Religion in Society, 5) Church and State, and 6) Religion in Action....

 Across multiple questions in our Index, one message rings loud and clear: Americans deeply value their First Amendment freedoms, even in the face of tough, controversial issues....

We are pleased to report that political division did not seem to negatively impact Americans’ convictions about the importance of religion and religious liberty....  Americans also report being more accepting of people of faith and more appreciative of their contributions than ever before. Encouragingly, both people of faith as a whole and non-Christian people of faith reported feeling more accepted in society than in 2023.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops yesterday released its 2025 annual report on The State of Religious Liberty in the United States (full text) (Executive Summary). The 83-page Report, which reviews developments at the national level in 2024 in Congress, the Courts and the Executive Branch, says in part:

... [B]ecause control of the two chambers of Congress was divided, most bills that threatened religious liberty—that is to say, immunity from coercion in religious matters—did not move forward. Legislation aiming to increase access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) was introduced in 2024. The most significant threats to religious liberty at the federal level came in the form of finalized regulations by federal agencies, such as the Section 1557 rule, which implements the nondiscrimination provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). These rules heavily focused on imposing requirements regarding abortion, sexual orientation, and gender identity....

The five areas of critical concern—threats and opportunities—for religious liberty are:

• The targeting of faith-based immigration service

• The persistence of elevated levels of antisemitic incidents 

• IVF mandates, which represent a significant threat to religious freedom, while the national discussion of IVF represents an opportunity for Catholics to share Church teaching and advocate for human dignity

• The scaling back of gender ideology in law

•  Parental choice in education, one of the longest-running areas of concern for American Catholics

Today Is Religious Freedom Day

President Biden has issued a Proclamation (full text) declaring today as Religious Freedom Day, the anniversary of the adoption by Virginia in 1786 of the Statute of Religious Freedom. The President's Proclamation reads in part:

We are all blessed to live in a Nation that is home to people of many faiths.  However, even in our land of liberty, too many people are afraid that practicing their faith will bring fear, violence, and intimidation.  Over the past year, we have seen a shocking rise in antisemitism in the wake of Hamas’s terrorist attack against Israel and a disturbing rise in Islamophobia.  Hate has no safe harbor here in America.  And around the world, minority communities continue to live in fear of violence and are denied equal protections under the law, including Christians in some countries.

My Administration is committed to ensuring that people of every faith and belief can live out their deepest conviction freely, peacefully, and safely....

Today, we recognize how religious freedom is at the core of who we are as a Nation. It is central to the freedom we offer all Americans. And it is threaded throughout all our work to advance human freedom and dignity in the world.

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken also issued a Statement (full text) marking the occasion, saying in part:

The United States’s dedication to the freedom of religion or belief continues uninterrupted.  Over the past four years, the United States has worked tirelessly to secure this right for everyone around the world.  These efforts include: documenting religious freedom conditions in every country....; declaring the actions of members of the Burmese military against Rohingya to be genocide and crimes against humanity; expanding to over 40 countries the International Freedom of Religion or Belief Alliance....

The United States has also expanded diplomatic efforts to advance freedom of religion or belief through the UN, the Article 18 Alliance, the International Contact Group, and in close coordination with partner countries.  These efforts helped secure the release of religious prisoners of conscience in Nicaragua, the People’s Republic of China, Nigeria, Iran, Somalia, Vietnam, and elsewhere around the world.

Texas Supreme Court Hears Arguments on Interpretation of "Religious Service Protections" Constitutional Amendment

Last Wednesday, The Texas Supreme Court heard oral arguments (video of full oral arguments) in Perez v. City of San Antonio. The court is being asked to respond to a certified question from the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in a case in which members of the Lipan Apache Native American Church claim that improvements to a park that include tree removal and rookery management destroy their ability to use a sacred site in the park for certain religious ceremonies. The certified question involves interpretation of a provision in the Texas state Constitution that was adopted in response to restrictions imposed during the Covid pandemic.  The constitutional provision prohibits the state and localities from placing limits on religious services, without specifying whether the ban applies even in cases of a compelling governmental interest in doing so. (See prior posting.) The certified question reads:

Does the “Religious Service Protections” provision of the Constitution of the State of Texas—as expressed in Article 1, Section 6-a—impose a categorical bar on any limitation of any religious service, regardless of the sort of limitation and the government’s interest in that limitation?

The Texas Supreme Court has links to pleadings and briefs (including amicus briefs) filed in the case. Oral argument for appellants was presented by a faculty member from the University of Texas College of Law, Law and Religion Clinic. Religion News Service reports on the oral arguments.

5th Circuit Reopens Lipan-Apache's Suit Objecting to Park Modifications

 In 2021, Texas voters approved an amendment to the state constitution that provides:

This state or a political subdivision of this state may not enact, adopt, or issue a statute, order, proclamation, decision, or rule that prohibits or limits religious services, including religious services conducted in churches, congregations, and places of worship, in this state by a religious organization established to support and serve the propagation of a sincerely held religious belief.

The amendment was a response to orders during the Covid pandemic that limited the size of gatherings for religious services. (Background.)

In Perez v. City of San Antonio, (5th Cir., Aug. 28, 2024), the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals certified to the Texas Supreme Court the question of whether this ban is an absolute one, or whether the amendment merely imposes a strict scrutiny requirement on any limitation. The issue arises in a suit by members of the Lipan-Apache Native American Church who claim that improvements to a park that include tree removal and rookery management destroy their ability to use a sacred site in the park for certain religious ceremonies. In a prior decision, the 5th Circuit rejected plaintiffs' claim under the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act. It then held that plaintiffs had not adequately briefed the question of whether the Religious Services Amendment to the constitution covers a compelled preservation of spiritual ecology. (See prior posting.) Plaintiffs filed a motion for a rehearing, and in this week's decision the panel withdrew its original opinion and certified the question of the meaning of the Religious Services Amendment to the Texas Supreme Court, saying in part:

Neither party has cited any cases interpreting this constitutional provision, nor has this court found any. This potentially outcome determinative issue raises novel and sensitive questions....

5th Circuit Denies Further Relief to Native American Church Objecting to Park Modifications

As previously reported, last year a Texas federal district court held that members of the Lipam-Apache Native American Church should be given access for religious services to a point on the San Antonio River which is a Sacred Site for them.  The court refused to grant plaintiffs' request that the proposed improvements to the park in which the Sacred Site is located be limited so that the spiritual ecology of the Sacred Area would be preserved by minimizing tree removal and allowing cormorants to nest. Plaintiffs appealed the injunction denials.  In Perez v. City of San Antonio, (5th Cir., April 11, 2024), the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court. Rejecting appellants' claim under the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the court said in part:

In analyzing Appellants’ contention that the destruction of the tree canopies, where cormorants nest, and the driving away of the cormorants themselves will burden their religions, we consider whether the presupposed burden is real and significant....

Appellants continue to have virtually unlimited access to the Park for religious and cultural purposes. Appellants’ reverence of the cormorants as sacred genesis creatures from the Sacred Area is not implicated here because the City’s rookery management program does not directly dictate or regulate the cormorants’ nesting habits, migration, or Park visitation. For example, the record shows that, regardless of the rookery management program, no cormorants, due to their migration patterns, inhabit the area for extended periods of time each year. Moreover, the City’s rookery management program does not substantially burden Appellants’ religious beliefs because cormorants can still nest elsewhere in the 343-acre Park or nearby. The deterrent activities are deployed only within the two-acre Project Area and only to persuade the birds to nest elsewhere....

The record indicates that various areas of the Park “become nearly unusable for 10 months of the year due to the bird density/habitat.”...

 [T]he City’s tree removal plan is narrowly tailored to achieve the City’s compelling governmental interest of making the Project Area safe for visitors to the Park....

Appellants assert that the City’s plan violates the religious-service protections provision of the Texas Constitution....

Even accepting that the “relatively new provision bars any government action that prohibits or limits religious services,” Appellants do not sufficiently brief the question of whether a compelled “preservation of spiritual ecology” was envisioned in the statute’s definition of a “religious service” protected from state sanctioned prohibitions or limitations.

Judge Higginson dissented in part, contending that the city should have done more to accommodate plaintiffs as to tree removal and anti-nesting matters.

Iowa Enacts Religious Freedom Restoration Act

Yesterday Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed SF 2095, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. (Governor's press release.) (Full text of Act.) It provides in part:

State action shall not substantially burden a person's exercise of religion, even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability, unless the government demonstrates that applying the burden to that person's exercise of religion is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest and is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest.

The Gazette reports on the bill.

Utah Legislature Passses Religious Freedom Bill

The Utah legislature yesterday gave final passage to S.B. 150: Exercise of Religion Amendments (full text). The bill is similar, though not identical to, Religious Freedom Restoration Acts passed in 35 other states. It prohibits governmental imposition of a substantial burden on the free exercise of religion unless the government demonstrates a compelling interest and uses the least restrictive means to further that interest. In a compromise with LGBTQ advocates, the sponsor of the bill added language in the introductory "Whereas" clauses to preserve existing protections against discrimination in employment and housing based on sexual orientation or gender identity. (Background). Those clauses read:

(d) WHEREAS, Utah has enacted a number of laws that balance religious freedom with other important civil rights; and

(e) WHEREAS, this part complements, rather than disrupts, the balance described in Subsection (1)(d).

The bill now goes to Governor Spencer Cox for his signature. States Newsroom reports on passage of the bill.

Catholic Bishops Issue Report on Religious Liberty In the United States

Last week, the Committee on Religious Liberty of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued its Annual Report on The State of Religious Liberty in the United States (full text) (executive summary). The 48-page Report reviews developments at the national level in Congress, the Supreme Court and the Executive Branch.  It goes on to examine national trends in politics, culture and law. It forecasts important issues for 2024 and identifies what its authors see as the top 5 threats to religious liberty in the coming year.

New Report on Attitudes Toward Religious Freedom Released

Becket yesterday released its 2023 Religious Freedom Index (full text). This is the fifth year the Report has been compiled. The Executive Summary of the 99-page report says in part:

The Index is designed to give a holistic view of American attitudes toward religious freedom by surveying a nationally representative sample of approximately 1,000 American adults each year. The survey consists of 21 annually repeating questions that cover a broad range of topics, from the rights of religious people to practice their respective faiths to the role of government in protecting and promoting religious beliefs. The responses to these questions are broken down into six dimensions: 1) Religious Pluralism, 2) Religion and Policy, 3) Religious Sharing, 4) Religion in Society, 5) Church and State, and 6) Religion in Action....

In addition to the 21 repeating Index questions, the survey contains additional questions that differ from year to year and ask Americans about timely or special topics. This year, the Index asked about the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (which is celebrating the 30th anniversary of its passage), religion and parental rights in education, and the proper standard for religious accommodations on issues like abortion and Native American sacred sites....

Across a variety of questions, this year’s Index shows that Americans are deeply committed to the rights of parents to educate and raise their children in accordance with their faith and values....

Today Is Religious Freedom Day

Today is Religious Freedom Day, commemorating Virginia's adoption of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom on January 16, 1786. President Biden last week signed a Proclamation (full text) designating today as Religious Freedom Day in 2024.  The Proclamation reads in part:

Everyone must be free to practice their faith without fear, whether they are gathering for worship, attending a religious school, participating in the activities of other faith-based organizations, or simply walking down the street wearing the symbols of their faith.  That is why, working with the Congress, my Administration secured the greatest increase in funding in our history for the physical security of non-profits — including churches, gurdwaras, mosques, synagogues, temples, and other places of worship.  In my 2024 Budget proposal to the Congress, I requested that this funding be raised to $360 million, and my Administration works continually to protect places of worship, including through an annual Protecting Places of Worship Week of Action.

HHS Adopts Rules Implementing Conscience Protections in Federal Law

The Department of Health and Human Services has made available a 100-page Release (full text) titled Safeguarding the Rights of Conscience as Protected by Federal Statutes that will be published in the Federal Register on January 11. The Release adopts the final version of amendments to rules initially adopted in 2011 and amended in 2019. though the 2019 version never took effect because of litigation. (See prior posting.) The new Rules seek to implement conscience protections in various statutes that bar recipients of federal funds from requiring health care personnel and organizations to participate in conduct that violates their religious or moral beliefs.  The new Rules provide in part:

OCR considers the posting of a notice consistent with this part as a best practice towards achieving compliance with and educating the public about the Federal health care conscience protection statutes, and encourages all entities subject to the Federal health care conscience protection statutes to post the model notice provided in Appendix A to this part. OCR will consider posting a notice as a factor in any investigation or compliance review under this rule.

(See prior related posting.) 

In a Release (full text) criticizing the new Rule, Alliance Defending Freedom said in part:

In its rule, HHS suggests it will continue its misguided use of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act to require doctors to perform abortions even though that federal law has no abortion requirement, and conscience laws provide no exception allowing forced performance of abortion.

In a Release (full text) commending the Biden Administration for the Rule change, the ACLU said in part:

The Biden administration announced it would partially repeal a dangerous and unnecessary Trump-era rule, which numerous courts had declared unlawful, that would have allowed health care institutions and providers to deny patients treatment and information based on personal religious or moral beliefs.

2023 Report on Religious Liberty in the States Released

The Center for Religion, Culture and Democracy has released its report 2023 Religious Liberty in the States. In this, its second annual report that measures state-level protections for religious liberty, the Center has added three new criteria, so that it now bases its state rankings on 14 types of state laws. The Report's Executive Summary says in part:

RLS has approached religious liberty from the perspective that people of any faith or no faith should be allowed to live in all areas of their lives according to their sincere beliefs. For that reason, we have not limited our analyses to activities that typically occur within houses of worship or activities of the clerical professions; we have defined religious exercise broadly. And while in 2022 it was not our intention to focus on any particular areas of life—rather, in our first project year we aimed to characterize the laws in areas where they were most clear—we note that in 2023 the new safeguards are noticeably more closely tied to religious ceremony or observance, narrowly understood. RLS continues to explore new items for future years and welcomes feedback from interested parties.

The Report ranks Illinois as highest in religious liberty protections and ranks West Virginia lowest.

USCIRF Holds Hearing on Russian Violation of Religious Freedom Through Its Invasion of Ukraine

Last Wednesday, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom held a virtual hearing on Russia's Invasion of Ukraine: Implications for Religious Freedom. (Video of full Hearing and transcripts of written presentations.) USCIRF described the hearings:

Since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the full-scale military invasion of Ukraine a year ago, Russian forces have committed numerous religious freedom and other related human rights violations in Ukraine, including the killing and torture of religious leaders and the destruction of countless houses of worship. Russian officials have repeatedly turned to antisemitic rhetoric and Holocaust distortion in an effort to justify the country’s groundless invasion. In the areas of Ukraine that Russia has occupied since 2014, its de facto authorities and proxies have imposed draconian laws to suppress religious communities such as the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, predominantly Muslim Crimean Tatars and Jehovah’s Witnesses. Meanwhile, in Russia, the state has continued to prosecute an ever-growing list of religious groups as so-called “extremists” for their peaceful religious activities and launched a ruthless campaign to silence civil society and independent media.

West Virginia Legislature Passes Religious Freedom Act

The West Virginia legislature yesterday gave final passage to the Equal Protection for Religion Act (full text). The bill bars state action that substantially burdens a person's exercise of religion unless there is a compelling governmental interest and the least restrictive means are used. It also prohibits treating religious conduct more restrictively than other conduct of reasonably comparable risk, or more restrictively than comparable conduct for economic reasons. It provides for injunctive or declaratory relief and recovery of costs and attorneys' fees. Among other things, the bill does not "protect actions or decisions to end the life of any human being, born or unborn..." The bill which now goes to Governor Jim Justice for his signature passed the Senate in accelerated fashion after it voted 30-3 to suspend its rules that normally require three readings. AP and the legislature's Wrap Up blog report on the bill's passage.

European Court Again Holds That Flying Spaghetti Monster Church Is Not a Protected "Religion"

In two recent Chamber Judgments, the European Court of Human Rights reaffirmed its prior holding in a 2021 case that the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, whose adherents are also known as Pastafarians, does not qualify as a "religion" or "belief" protected by Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights. In Sager v. Austria, (ECHR, Dec. 15, 2022), Austria's Office for Religious Affairs refused to recognize the Church as a religious community. The European Court rejected petitioner's challenge to that decision, saying in part:

[B]y holding that Pastafarianism perceived itself as an ironical and critical movement with educational, scientific and political aims, and lacked religious rites, duties and an active following in Austria, the Office for Religious Affairs and the Federal Administrative Court duly applied the above‑mentioned standards requiring a certain level of cogency, seriousness, cohesion and importance.

In ALM v. Austria, (ECHR, Dec. 15, 2022), Austrian authorities refused to issue petitioner an identity card with a photograph showing him wearing a crown made of pasta.  Again, the European Court rejected petitioner's challenge to that decision. Law & Religion UK reports on the decisions.