Kerby Anderson

One of the issues in the 2016 presidential campaign was religious liberty. Many of the Americans who voted for Donald Trump believed he would protect religious liberty by appointing conservative judges to the federal court. Ryan Anderson argues that there are executive actions that the president-elect can do even before he appoints judges to the federal court. First, he can address the threat faced by religious schools (like Wheaton College) and religious groups (like the Little Sisters of the Poor) from the mandates from the Department of Health and Human Services. Houses of worship were exempted from the Obamacare contraception and abortifacients mandate. Currently these religious groups were merely offered an accommodation that still violated their religious beliefs. The next president and his administration could direct the new secretary of Health and Human Services “to provide robust religious liberty protection to the HHS mandate.” A second action could be taken with regard to the Justice Department and the Department of Education. Bureaucrats in the Obama administration re-interpreted the 1972 Title IX law to mandate that schools allow students to use bathroom and locker room facilities in accord with their “gender identity.” The next president could rescind the executive orders by President Obama. He could also instruct the new secretaries of Education and Health and Human Services along with his new Attorney General to interpret the Title IX law the way it was intended. Finally, Congress can pass and the next president can sign two pieces of legislation. One is the Russell Amendment, which protects freedom in religious staffing. The other is the Civil Rights Uniformity Act that specifies that the word “sex” in our civil rights laws does not mean “gender identity.” These are three things the next president can do to protect religious liberty, even before appointing judges to the courts.