Religious liberty matters

PUBLISHED: July 28, 2026 | kmph.com

Buried within the Justice Department’s new religious liberty guidance is a sentence that should never have needed to be written:

“Except in the narrowest circumstances, no one should be forced to choose between living out his or her faith and complying with the law.”

The fact that such a principle required reaffirmation tells the story of the last decade.

On July 23, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche issued the first comprehensive update to the Department of Justice’s religious liberty guidance since 2017. While the document contains 21 principles and extensive legal appendices, its central message is remarkably straightforward: before government agencies draft regulations, enforce policies, or make personnel decisions, they must consider how those actions affect the constitutional rights of people of faith not after litigation begins, but before the harm is done.

The guidance applies throughout the federal government and extends its influence through federal funding requirements and the legal positions the government takes in court. It also reinforces a broader commitment to parental rights. Last September, Attorney General Pam Bondi directed U.S. attorneys to investigate violations of parental rights in educational settings, signaling that religious liberty and parental authority remain closely connected constitutional protections.

The need for this guidance is illustrated by recent history.

Consider Joe Kennedy, the Bremerton, Washington, high school football coach who quietly knelt to pray at the 50-yard line after games. In 2015, the school district ordered him to stop. He refused, was placed on leave, and ultimately lost his job. It took seven years of litigation and a Supreme Court victory before he prevailed, and eight years before he returned to the sidelines.

Then there was Gerald Groff, a rural Pennsylvania postal worker and evangelical Christian who observed the Sabbath. After the Postal Service expanded Sunday deliveries through Amazon, Groff requested the religious accommodation it had previously granted him. Instead, he faced escalating discipline and ultimately resigned rather than violate his faith. In 2023, a unanimous Supreme Court ruled that employers must make genuine not merely token efforts to accommodate religious beliefs.

Sharonell Fulton spent more than 25 years caring for foster children through Catholic Social Services in Philadelphia. In 2018, the city stopped placing children with the agency because it would not certify same-sex couples as foster parents, even while acknowledging a shortage of foster homes. Once again, it required a unanimous Supreme Court decision to reverse the city’s actions.

Most recently, Wisconsin denied Catholic charities a religious tax exemption, arguing that its ministry was not sufficiently religious because it served anyone in need without requiring conversion or limiting assistance to Catholics. The Supreme Court unanimously rejected that reasoning, affirming that charitable service itself is an authentic expression of religious faith.

These cases reveal a common pattern. Religious liberty is rarely threatened by dramatic legislation. More often, it is diminished through administrative decisions, personnel policies, contract provisions, licensing requirements, and bureaucratic interpretations quietly implemented by unelected officials.

The burden has consistently fallen on ordinary Americans. Years of litigation. Lost careers. Financial hardship. Public criticism. Meanwhile, the government agencies responsible for these actions often faced little consequence. Even when citizens ultimately prevailed before the Supreme Court, justice arrived only after enormous personal sacrifice. Constitutional rights should not require nearly a decade of litigation to vindicate.

The Justice Department’s new guidance seeks to prevent those conflicts before they begin. Agencies are instructed to evaluate religious burdens while regulations are being drafted, designate officials to identify potential conflicts early, and meaningfully respond to concerns raised during the public comment process. Religious organizations must be allowed to compete on equal footing with secular organizations for grants and contracts without surrendering their religious identity or hiring practices. Federal employees may openly express their faith by keeping a Bible on their desk, wearing a hijab, yarmulke, or other religious attire, and discussing their beliefs in appropriate workplace settings. The guidance also affirms an important constitutional principle: government may not interfere with parents’ rights to direct the religious upbringing of their children.

As Blanche observed, “Religious liberty is one of our Nation’s founding principles and a fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution.”

Those who endured these legal battles understand that constitutional rights are meaningful only when ordinary citizens can exercise them without risking their livelihoods, their reputations, or years in court.

The purpose of this guidance is not to create new rights. It is to ensure that government remembers and faithfully protects the rights Americans have possessed from the very beginning.

___

Mr. Williams is Manager/Sole Owner of Howard Stirk Holdings I & II Broadcast Television Stations and the 2016 Multicultural Media Broadcast Owner of the year.