<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Friday the Trump administration will not treat religious individuals as an \u201cafterthought\u201d and vowed that the Justice Department will get involved in more cases regarding freedom of religion.<\/p>\n
Mr. Sessions\u2019 remarks came at a meeting of the Council for National Policy, a conservative networking organization founded in 1981.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe threats to religious freedom are threats to our First Amendment right to freedom of speech,\u201d Mr. Sessions told the group.<\/p>\n
In October, the Justice Department issued a directive to give religious organizations and individuals stronger protections to express their beliefs, even when they conflict with government regulations.<\/p>\n
The directive was criticized because it provided stronger protections for employers making hiring decisions based on their religious faith. Some claimed the directive would lead to discrimination against individuals whose sexual orientation clashed with their employers\u2019 faith.<\/p>\n
The department directive came on the heels of the Trump administration announcing it would expand religious exemptions for employers who object to providing insurance coverage for birth control.<\/p>\n
Former Sen. Sam Brownback was confirmed in February as the United States\u2019 ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom. Mr. Brownback is the first former politician and first Catholic to hold that position, which has existed through previous administrations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Trump administration understand the value of free religious expression,\u201d Mr. Sessions told the crowd.<\/p>\n
The Justice Department has also become fairly active in defending religious liberty cases under the Trump administration. Earlier this year, the department filed court papers alleging that Georgia Gwinnett College violated the constitutional rights of a student who claimed he was told he couldn\u2019t distribute fliers promoting his Christian faith in a campus open space. In its 26-page statement of interest, the department said the students\u2019 right to free speech was violated.<\/p>\n
Mr. Sessions emphasized the link between freedom of speech and freedom of religion, two constitutional protections, in his speech Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would argue that free expression of religious views and values is doubly protected in the First Amendment,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Friday the Trump administration will not treat religious individuals as an “afterthought” and vowed that the Justice Department will get involved in more cases rega Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Friday the Trump administration will not treat religious individuals as an \u201cafterthought\u201d and vowed that the Justice Department will get […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3076,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[303,34,424],"class_list":["post-3075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","tag-labor","tag-politics","tag-religion-belief"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3075\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}