Kerby Anderson

The first year of the Trump administration has been a good year for religious liberty. That is what Kelly Shackelford (First Liberty Institute) documents in a recent column that appeared in National Review. He talks about five major actions by the president that have defended religious liberty. First, and perhaps the most lasting, are the judicial appointments by the president. That certainly includes Justice Gorsuch, but it also includes many other judges that will have a strong adherence to originalism and the rule of law. Second, the president signed an executive order on religious liberty. This provided a framework of guidelines issued by the Attorney General that helped clarify how religious liberty should follow the First Amendment. Third, the president also ended years of wasteful litigation over the HHS contraceptive mandate. It is still hard to believe that the previous administration wanted to force Catholic nuns to pay for contraceptives. Even more significant was the decision to create a division within HHS that would protect conscience and religious freedom. As I have mentioned in previous commentaries, laws passed by Congress to protect religious freedom have been ignored by the previous administration. Fourth, the president rescinded the arbitrary FEMA rule that prevented houses of worship from receiving emergency relief. As I have said in previous commentaries, hurricanes and floods didn’t cherry-pick their victims; FEMA shouldn’t cherry-pick who it helps. Fifth, the president’s Justice Department has been willing to defend various religious liberty cases in the courts. They are defending such issues as the parsonage allowance as well as actively supporting people like baker Jack Phillips in his case before the Supreme Court. Last year was a good year for religious liberty because of actions taken by the Trump administration.