Trump's Religious Liberty Commission meets for the first time: What to know

USA Today

12 hours ago

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President Donald Trump has said during his second term "religion is coming back to America" and has launched a new Religious Liberty Commission in his administration.
The creation of the commission followed the establishment of the White House Faith Office in February, which replaced former President Joe Biden's White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
According to the White House, the commission will advise the faith office and will reflect a "diversity of faith traditions, professional backgrounds and viewpoints." But some groups and experts are skeptical, suggesting the commission could serve as a platform for a specific Christian agenda.
The commission will have its first meeting, which is open to the public, at the Museum of the Bible in Washington on Monday.
Here's what to know about the group ahead of the event:
What is the commission?
The commission is a group of up to 14 people appointed by Trump who are tasked with advising the government on religious liberty issues. The executive order says the members' terms, and the commission itself, will end on July 4, 2026 – the 250 th anniversary of American independence – unless Trump extends it.
Members are not paid for their work, though they may receive travel expenses.
The commission also has three advisory boards composed of religious leaders, legal experts and lay leaders.
Who's involved and on the commission?
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who offered up to $1 million to individuals who could provide proof of Trump's baseless claims of widespread election fraud in 2020, and Dr. Ben Carson, who ran for president in 2016 and later served as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in Trump's first administration, were appointed to serve as the commission's chair and vice chair, respectively.
Other longtime Trump allies are on the commission, including the Rev. Franklin Graham and pastor Paula White, who leads the White House Faith Office. The commission also includes Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York whom Trump recommended for the papacy after Pope Francis' death, and Carrie Prejean Boller, who stirred controversy by saying 'marriage should be between a man and a woman' during the Miss USA 2009 competition.
The religious advisory board includes Christian and Jewish members from traditions including Catholicism, evangelicalism, Greek Orthodox Christianity and orthodox Judaism. They include:
Greek Orthodox Archbishop Elpidophoros, who attended Trump's inauguration and later offered the president a holy cross as a sign of 'divine guidance,' according to the Catholic News Agency.
Pastor Jack Graham, who leads Prestonwood Baptist Church in the Dallas area and previously served as president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Graham has referred to Trump as a 'warrior for the word of God.'
Rabbi Yaakov Menken, executive vice president of the Coalition for Jewish Values, who has criticized 'wokeism' and said that Judaism 'teaches the principles that made America great' in an April interview with the Orthodox Jewish media outlet VIN News.
Legal experts include Jason Bedrick, a research fellow in the Center for Education Policy at the Heritage Foundation, which crafted the Republican policy playbook known as Project 2025, South Texas College of Law Houston professor Josh Blackman, and Alliance Defending Freedom president, CEO and general counsel Kristen Waggoner.
Lay leaders include Alveda King, an anti-abortion advocate and niece of the late Martin Luther King Jr. and 'Heaven Meets Earth' podcast co-host and Christian Broadcasting Network reporter Abigail Robertson Allen. Also on the board is activist Sameerah Munshi, who has supported Maryland parents seeking a right to opt their children out of reading books with LGBTQ characters in public schools in a case before the Supreme Court.
What will the commission do?
The commission's purpose is to 'safeguard and promote America's founding principle of religious freedom," according to the White House.
Trump's May 1 executive order that established the group said Americans 'need to be reacquainted with our nation's superb experiment in religious freedom in order to preserve it against emerging threats.'
More hearings will follow its initial June 16 meeting over the next year, the White House said, and the commission is tasked with publishing a report on the history and state of religious liberty in the nation by July 4, 2026.
That report will highlight 'parental rights in religious education, school choice, conscience protections, attacks on houses of worship, free speech for religious entities and institutional autonomy," according to a White House fact sheet.
What is the 'anti-Christian bias' they're referring to?
The fact sheet also accused the Biden administration of '(targeting) peaceful Christians while ignoring violent, anti-Christian offenses.'
When asked for further details about the claim, a White House spokesperson referenced the nearly two dozen anti-abortion activists whom Trump pardoned in January.
The group included individuals charged with conspiring to storm a reproductive health clinic in Washington in October 2020.
Among their charges were violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which prohibits individuals from interfering with another's access to reproductive health services 'by force, threat of force or physical obstruction.'
The Office of the Associate Attorney General said in a Jan. 24 letter that charging individuals under the act '(has) been the prototypical example of this weaponization.'
In a speech following the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022, which revoked a woman's constitutional right to an abortion and prompted nationwide protests, Biden said he '(calls) on everyone, no matter how deeply they care about this decision, to keep all protests peaceful.'
Why are some experts concerned?
The White House touted what it described as the diversity of the commission.
"President Trump welcomes, honors and celebrates people of all faiths in the White House,' the White House spokesperson said, pointing to the president's commemorations of the religious holidays of Ramadan, Easter and Passover.
The commission includes Protestants, Catholics and Jews, but no Muslims or members of other minority religious groups. There is Muslim representation on the advisory board of lay leaders.
Given that composition, some experts were skeptical that the commission's work would uphold religious liberty for all in practice.
'Saying, 'we have a Catholic and a Protestant and a Jew on the committee' does not mean that we have balanced viewpoints or a wide array of viewpoints if you've gone through and chosen people who share and reflect the administration's favored religious beliefs and favored political beliefs, and that's what we have here,' Duke University law professor Richard Katskee said.
Erwin Chemerinsky, a law professor and dean of Berkeley Law, noted the commission appears to be 'an extremely conservative group' primarily focused on 'using government to advance religion,' particularly a Trump-friendly branch of Christianity.
That, he said, is 'very troubling.'
Eugene Volokh, a professor of law emeritus at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, said time will tell if the commission lives up to its stated goal of protecting all religious groups and practices in the United States.
"I think the commission's job is to protect everybody and they may very well take quite seriously that job," he said. "We'll see."
BrieAnna Frank is a First Amendment Reporting Fellow at USA TODAY. Reach her at [e-mail].