This memo provides guidance on religious expression for federal workers. Supporters say it reflects Clinton-era policies. But for others, the language of Christianity openly raises concerns about the First Amendment.
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- The memo comes after Trump issued an executive order on “eramination of anti-Christian bias” and established the White House Faith Office and the Religious Freedom Committee.
- The guidance in the memo is primarily based on existing policies, but some experts said they do not appear to pay much more attention to the risk of religious harassment in the workplace than previous guidance.
- The example of acceptable religious expression in the memo comes from Christian and Jewish traditions, but the Human Resources Administration says that guidance is applicable to members of all faiths.
President Donald Trump is once again confirming that his supporters know he is “performing his role in bringing religion back to our country.”
Most recently, his administration issued a memo in late July outlining federal employees the types of religious expression allowed in the workplace. The Bible on the desk. A group that joins together to pray. “He is engaged with another employee in a polite discussion of why his faith is correct and why non-compliances should reconsider his religious beliefs.
For many, it had an overtly Christian-centric language and raised concerns about the rights of other religious organizations. But supporters say the memo will strengthen existing policies for federal workers, including similar guidance during the Clinton administration.
According to James Nelson, a professor of law at the University of Houston, the memo issued by Scott Kupo of the Human Resources Administration to all federal agencies is “very side by side” with Trump’s previous actions on religious freedom.
In the campaign trajectory and elsewhere, Trump often tells his religious audience that he will regain his religion, highlighting his efforts to appeal to conservative Christian supporters since his second term began.
Trump issued an executive order in February asking federal agencies to help “eliminate anti-Christian bias,” followed by the establishment of the White House Faith Office and the Religious Freedom Committee. At the committee’s first public meeting in June, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said religious freedom was “attacked” within the country and that he had vowed to protect religious freedom from “new threats.”
A spokesman for the Office of Personnel Management said the July 28 memo was “repeated existing policies,” but updated in light of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld religious freedom. For example, it refers to a 2023 ruling in favour of Christian U.S. Postal Service workers who opposed working on Sundays.
Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal organization, called the new memo “an important step in restoring a workplace culture that respects and promotes religious freedom for all Americans.”
“When Americans step into the workplace, there’s no need for Americans to check their faith at the door,” said Michael Ross, the organization’s legal advisor.
However, experts, including Nelson, said the memo was less aware of the possibility of religious coercion and harassment in the workplace than previous guidance.
What the note says
The five-page memo begins by describing Trump as an advocate of religious freedom, and further states that amendments, federal law and the Supreme Court ruling protect federal employees’ rights to religious expression in the workplace.
Next, we describe the acceptable forms of religious expression by individual and federal workers groups. For example, we explain it through conversations between federal employees, interactions with the public, and expressions in a community that is open to the public.
Examples of acceptable forms of religious expression cited by the memo are from Christian and Jewish traditions. They are:
- “Employees can hold the Bible on their desks and read it during breaks. Similarly, employees can keep rosary beads or tefillin on their desks. During breaks, they may pray using such items.”
- “A group of employees can form prayer groups and gather in the office for prayers and studies of the Bible and scriptures, rather than working hours.”
- “On message boards intended for personal presentations, supervisors may post handwritten notes that invite his employees to attend Easter services at his church.”
- “Party rangers leading the tour through the national park may join her tour group praying.”
- “A receptionist in the doctor’s office at VA Medical Center may pray with a colleague in the patient’s waiting room.”
The employee also states that “they may engage in another debate on why his faith is correct and why non-compliances should reconsider his religious beliefs.” However, it should be noted that religious employees should respect the demands to end such discussions.
The Trump administration praised Clinton-era leadership on religious expression
But these are not new policies.
Former President Bill Clinton’s administration issued similar guidance in 1997.
Similar to a recent note, Clinton-era guidance allows “to allow another argument (enhancingly) with a polite discussion of why he should accept his faith,” and says that if the speaker is not required to stop, the agency should “not limit or interfere with such speech.”
“In countries where freedom of speech and religion is guaranteed, citizens should expect to be exposed to ideas they disagree with,” says the 1997 memo.
Trump’s first administration also issued a memo on religious freedom in 2017. It called for federal agencies to “ensure they are following” Clinton-era guidance, calling it a “useful” resource by private employers to respond to religious expression.
In other words, there’s nothing “new” about the guidance, said Thomas Zipping, a senior law fellow at the Heritage Foundation.
However, he said enforcement of laws protecting religious freedom was “inconsistent” throughout the presidential administration. Zipping referenced the 2015 Supreme Court ruling in favor of a religious nonprofit that opposed the birth control mission in President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.
In his view, the issue is not an oversaturation of religion in public life, but a “very aggressive effort” to remove it. Zipping praised what he described as a corrective action for the Trump administration.
“Let’s face it. There are a lot of people out there who want religious people to go quietly to church,” he said. “It never cited the phrase “American way.” It’s not freedom. ”
Others are even more skeptical of the Trump administration’s actions.
According to Professor Emeritus of Law at George Washington University, George Washington University, the latest memo is “very leaning in a very indifferent or quiet direction about the right to religious expression and the issues of very indifference or quietness.”
He called it “balance and fair” in contrast to Clinton-era leadership, which acknowledged both the religious rights of federal employees and the associated risks of religious harassment in the workplace.
The memo says, for example, that federal agencies cannot refuse to employ Buddhists, or “impose more troublesome requirements” on Buddhist job seekers, employees can hold the Quran on their desks and read it, employees can wear religious apparel like crosses and hijabs, and employers do not force Jehovah to force them to enforce religious trust.
Loop pointed out that the new Trump administration memo does not mention Muslims, Buddhists or other minority religious groups.
However, a human resources spokesperson said the guidance could be equally applicable to those and other members of the faith. When asked about possible religious enforcement, the spokesman said the memo “discloses that refusing such an invitation is not the basis of discipline.”
The first revision “produces real tension,” experts say
Nelson said he saw “real tension” during some of the memo’s doctrines.
For example, Title VII, a section of the 1964 Civil Rights Act that prohibits employment discrimination, cites the 2015 Supreme Court ruling that granted “favourable treatment” under the law. However, the memo states that employees should be “allowed to engage in private religious expression in the field of labor to the same extent as they may be able to engage in private, secular expressions.”
“I think… the court may need to address that in the next few years,” Nelson said.
He admitted that he might “suppose concerns” about the leadership, but Princeton University law professor Robert George said he saw “such tensions and conflicts” between the establishment clauses that prohibit governments from supporting religion over secular religion and support the free exercise of religion.
The Supreme Court’s shift from “stricken separatism” made it clear that, in his view, it cannot be presented as a US government perspective or interfere with the rights of others, while protecting the rights of Americans.
“So, as government officials freely advocate or display symbols of secular causes — considering rainbow buttons and banners, insignias of black lives, they may freely express religious opinions and display religious symbols — as the notes clarify, the regulations of rational and perspective Chinese time and manners state.
Brieanna Frank is USA Today’s first revised reporting fellow. Contact her at bjfrank@usatoday.com.
Reports on the First Amendment issue for USA Today are funded through collaborations between the Freedom Forum and Journalism’s fundraising partners. Funders do not provide editor input.
