Religious Liberty Commission holds final hearing in shadow of Christian backlash to Trump posts

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — At the capstone hearing of the Department of Justice’s Religious Liberty Commission April 13, commissioners considered testimony from their seven hearings, signaling several areas for potential policy recommendations that they may include in their report to the president.

The final hearing also took place as controversy swirled over President Donald Trump lashing out at Pope Leo XIV on social media, and in verbal remarks on April 12 and 13, and as he posted and removed an AI-generated image that appeared to depict him as Jesus Christ amid a wider backlash from Christians that found it blasphemous. But commissioners addressed neither topic during the public hearing.

In comments at the hearing, Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, pointed to attacks on houses of worship such as churches, religious statues and “most terribly, of course, on religious people themselves” as a direct threat to religious liberty.

“The rise of antisemitism encouraged by figures on both the left and the right sides of the political spectrum is of particular concern here,” he said.

Bishop Barron also expressed concern about making sure the conscience rights of
“physicians and nurses who refuse on religious grounds to participate in certain medical procedures” are of “crucial importance.”

“This extends to, among other issues, the HHS mandates regarding abortion and contraception, IVF (in vitro fertilization) insurance mandates to which Catholics strenuously object, and the requirement to perform so-called gender transition surgeries,” he said. All of which, he added, represent “a very real threat to the religious liberty of those who find such ideas repugnant to their beliefs about the human person.”

Another key area of concern, Bishop Barron said, is ensuring religious entities such as social service organizations like Catholic Charities can participate in public-private partnerships with the government by keeping these organizations eligible for the same grants secular nonprofits receive.

Bishop Barron also addressed the issue of immigration, noting that the Catholic Church “strongly holds that a nation has the right to defend its borders and enforces immigration laws, but it insists that such defense and enforcement be conducted in a morally upright way.”

“Accordingly, it insists that those Catholics who are incarcerated in connection to immigration violations have a right to humane treatment and access to the sacraments,” he said. “It further requires that immigration agents should never disrupt worship services in the carrying out of their duties, in a word, the religious liberty of detainees and worshippers should always be respected.”

Bishop Barron’s comments at the hearing came the same day Trump rebuffed his call — in a statement posted on X — to apologize to Pope Leo.

When it established the commission last May, the White House said, it was tasked with producing “a comprehensive report on the foundations of religious liberty in America, strategies to increase awareness of and celebrate America’s peaceful religious pluralism, current threats to religious liberty, and strategies to preserve and enhance protections for future generations,” and that some of its areas of focus include school choice and conscience protections.

While it was not yet clear what particular recommendations the commission will make, over the course of its seven hearings, they heard witness testimony on a range of subjects, including conscience protections for health care workers, ensuring the availability of chaplains and even certain grooming requirement exceptions for those in the armed forces, threats to a site certain Native peoples consider sacred and protecting the seal of confession.

First Liberty Institute president and CEO Kelly Shackelford took aim at the recent dismissal of a lawsuit seeking to allow churches to endorse political candidates without losing their tax-exempt status.

The policy, known as the Johnson Amendment, prohibits 501(c)(3) organizations from engaging in political campaign activity. These organizations are a type of tax-exempt nonprofit under U.S. tax code, and the typical corporate structure for houses of worship and charities in the U.S.

Supporters of that policy argue it protects houses of worship from damaging relationships with political campaigns, but its critics, including Shackelford, argue it restricts First Amendment rights.

He suggested the president should trigger a test case on the policy’s constitutionality.

“There’s a way to deal with this, and that is if the president would ask the IRS to go ahead and issue a small fine against any church for talking about politics, and then make clear to the DOJ, we want a decision on the constitutionality of this IRS regulation versus the First Amendment of the United States Constitution,” he said. “Then we can finally get a precedent that then will make clear to every church the freedom they have.”

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has previously indicated the Catholic Church would maintain its policy of not endorsing or opposing political candidates regardless of possible changes to the Johnson Amendment.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, chair of the Religious Liberty Commission, suggested recommending that a notice of rights be posted in certain employment settings and public places.

“I think in terms of my recommendations, I do want to make a recommendation that we do post a person’s rights on religious liberty and all of our school, teacher lounges, and our businesses,” he said. “I’d love to see a hotline.”

Witnesses at the final hearing included Sister Mary Elizabeth of the Sisters of Life, who testified about the group’s 2022 lawsuit against an effort by New York state to probe pro-life pregnancy centers that would have required them to share internal documents. A court order later blocked New York’s effort in relation to the Sisters of Life.

“Our mission is where women can feel safe with the knowledge that their stories are kept confidential,” she said. “Many are in search of refuge from abusive partners and situations we could not, in good conscience, break trust with the women who come to us for help because we could not comply with the new law.”

But the Religious Liberty Commission was also a source of controversy. Carrie Prejean Boller, a former Miss California USA, was removed from the commission after a Feb. 9 hearing, which aimed to examine a rise in antisemitism where Prejean Boller, a Catholic, initiated some combative exchanges with Jewish American witnesses.

Prejean Boller claimed on social media that she was removed from the commission due to her Catholic beliefs, a claim disputed by other commissioners, notably Bishop Barron and Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, retired archbishop of New York.

A federal lawsuit — also filed Feb. 9 — by a multifaith coalition including Muslim, Hindu and Sikh organizations argued that while the commission was “ostensibly designed to defend ‘religious liberty for all Americans’ and celebrate ‘religious pluralism,’ it actually represents only a single ‘Judeo-Christian’ viewpoint.”

“No members of the Commission represent other minority religions, such as Islam, Hinduism, or Sikhism, and none of the members on the Commission represent an interfaith organization, despite the Commission’s mandate to celebrate America’s history of religious pluralism,” the lawsuit said.

Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, one of the groups behind that lawsuit, said in an April 13 statement that the commission “rebuked a foundational pillar of religious liberty: the separation of church and state.”

“Church-state separation ensures we are all free to live as ourselves and believe as we choose, as long as we don’t harm others. It allows us all to come together as equals to build a stronger democracy,” Laser said, arguing, “If this commission really cared about religious freedom, it would join Americans United in demanding a national recommitment to church-state separation as the best way to defend religious freedom for all.”

In April 13 comments, Patrick mentioned that lawsuit, arguing, “Someone doesn’t even want us to turn in our report.”

“That means they’re really afraid,” he said.

Barring court intervention, the commission’s report is expected later this spring.

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