Last week, Americans United and Democracy Forward filed a lawsuit on behalf of a diverse group of faith organizations to challenge President Donald Trump’s so-called “Religious Liberty” Commission. Though the purpose of the commission is ostensibly to “defend religious liberty for all Americans” and “celebrate America’s peaceful religious pluralism,” in reality the commission is made up of a largely homogenous group, all of whom share one narrow worldview that threatens, rather than encourages, true religious freedom.
Religious Liberty Commission advances one ‘Judeo-Christian’ worldview
As our lawsuit explains, all of the commission’s members are Christian except for one Orthodox Jewish rabbi, and all of the members have been explicit in their belief that the United States was founded as a “Judeo-Christian nation.” These individuals have promoted the primacy of a narrow “Judeo-Christian” worldview in the public sphere, advocated for discrimination against minority groups under the guise of “religious freedom,” and otherwise supported policies that threaten religious freedom for all those who do not conform to their particular worldview. The commission has even held four of its five meetings at the Museum of the Bible, an explicitly Christian institution.
Completely excluded from the commission are interfaith and minority religion perspectives, like those of the plaintiffs in our lawsuit — the Interfaith Alliance and its president, the Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush; Muslims for Progressive Values; Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund; and Hindus for Human Rights. Our plaintiffs represent diverse faith communities, but all are united in the goal of securing America’s promise of religious freedom for people of all religious backgrounds, not just those who subscribe to one narrow “Judeo-Christian” viewpoint. Without these perspectives, the commission will inevitably produce biased reports and policy recommendations that reflect its skewed, myopic view of “religious liberty.”
Religious Liberty Commission flouts basic transparency rules
Adding insult to injury, the commission has also flouted basic transparency rules, such as by failing to disclose meeting transcripts, agendas, and other materials that would allow interested members of the public — such as the plaintiffs in our lawsuit — to follow and understand the commission’s work.
The biased composition and secretive operations of the Religious Liberty Commission are blatant violations of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (“FACA”), a law enacted in 1972 to ensure government transparency and accountability. FACA requires that federal advisory bodies, like the Religious Liberty Commission, have a fair balance of viewpoints and comply with transparency requirements. But a body whose purported purpose is to advise on religious liberty and celebrate religious pluralism cannot be fairly balanced within the meaning of FACA when all but one of its members are Christian. And an advisory group certainly does not comply with FACA’s transparency requirements when it fails to even produce complete transcripts for its meetings.
Our lawsuit thus asks the court to require the commission to release documents that should already be public and to declare that any report or recommendations prepared by the commission do not reflect the views of a lawfully constituted advisory committee.
The Trump administration continues to insist that the Religious Liberty Commission’s purpose is to “secure and promote religious liberty for Americans of all Faiths.” But the unlawful makeup and secrecy of the commission make clear that the group’s true purpose is to advance a Christian Nationalist worldview that promotes “religious liberty” for one group at the expense of everyone else.
Photo: President Donald Trump prays with, from left, White House Faith Office Liaison Paula White-Cain, Religious Liberty Commission Chairman and Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and Attorney General Pam Bondi at the Museum of the Bible on Sept. 8, 2025, in Washington, D.C., during a meeting of the Religious Liberty Commission. Credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images.
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