ADF files comments with federal govt on religious freedom, free speech protections

The following quote may be attributed to Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Zack Pruitt regarding comments that ADF filed Tuesday, as part of the public comment period open to all Americans, in support of several federal agencies that proposed new rules in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order on religious liberty, the U.S. attorney general’s memorandum on religious liberty, and the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion in Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Comer:

“The government isn’t being neutral if it treats religious Americans and organizations worse than everyone else. That’s why we appreciate the efforts of the administration and its agencies to do what they can to respect and protect the free exercise of religion and the freedom of speech all Americans have under the Constitution. Our public comments filed today commend various federal agencies’ commitment to apply the First Amendment in a manner consistent with the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2017 decision in the ADF case Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Comer. In that decision, the high court ruled 7-2 that the government cannot exclude organizations and people of faith from a secular government program simply because of their religious identity. All federal agencies should make sure that they respect the essential freedoms that the First Amendment protects. As the Supreme Court wrote in the Trinity Lutheran decision, to exclude anyone from a public benefit solely on the basis of religious identity ‘is odious to our Constitution…, and cannot stand.’”