Sessions Outlines Religious Liberty Principles To Guide Government Actions

On October 6, 2017, Attorney General Jeff Sessions released a memorandum on religious liberty protections for all executive departments and agencies and guidance to Department of Justice staff on how to implement this memorandum. The memorandum outlines 20 principles of religious liberty to guide the federal government in accommodating religious observance and practice in federal employment, contracting, and programming. The principles themselves refer to the Constitution and federal laws, such as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA), in a general way, but much of the detailed legal analysis is found in the appendix, which accounts for most of the guidance. The appendix focuses primarily on the First Amendment, RFRA, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The memorandum also includes a section on how agencies should incorporate these religious liberty principles, as employers and when engaged in rulemaking, enforcement, contracting, and grantmaking. The Sessions memorandum was issued in response to President Trump’s May executive order on religious liberty. In that executive order, President Trump directed the Attorney General to issue guidance interpreting religious liberty protections “to guide all agencies in complying with relevant federal law.” (The same executive order directed the Secretaries of the Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services (HHS) to address religious objections...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - Category: Health Management Authors: Tags: Following the ACA ACA section 1557 contraceptive coverage mandate free exercise of religion Religious Freedom Restoration Act Title VII of the Civil Rights Act Source Type: blogs