News Release
For Immediate Release: 4.30.26
Contact: John Manning, media@firstliberty.org
Direct: 972-941-4453
President’s Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias in Government Releases Shocking Report, Exposes Biden Hostility
Task Force heard testimony from multiple First Liberty clients, finds Biden administration targeted Christians.
Washington, DC—President Donald Trump’s Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias in the Federal Government released its report today detailing hundreds of examples of government hostility toward Christians under the Biden Administration and corrective actions taken by the Trump Administration to protect religious liberty for the future.
Kelly Shackelford, President, CEO, and Chief Counsel at First Liberty said, “This report is shocking. The Biden administration’s record of hostility toward Christian Americans is despicable and should serve as a warning. We can never let this happen again. We are grateful to the current administration for recognizing that religious liberty is foundational to all of our Constitutional freedoms and for working to protect our first freedom. All Americans should be free to exercise their faith without government intrusion in school, in the military, in the workplace, and in the public square.”
President Trump established the Task Force “to identify where religious discrimination may have informed the Biden Administration’s policies, practices, or decisions; and to take immediate steps to rectify weaponization of government and unlawful conduct affecting Christians.” According to the report, the Task Force found that the Biden administration policies “regularly clashed with a Christian worldview” and that the administration “penalized Christians who lived in accordance with their beliefs” and “Christians who ascribed to traditional Christian morality relating to abortion, marriage, and human sexuality were targeted for their beliefs.”
The report found that, among other instances of anti-Christian actions, Biden’s Department of Justice “pursued aggressive prosecutions against non-violent, pro-life, Christian demonstrators under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act,” the FBI “investigated, monitored, tracked, and scrutinized traditional Catholics who engaged in no criminal misconduct,” and the “Internal Revenue Service investigated churches because of what their pastors preached and Christian organizations because they applied biblical teachings.”
The report references multiple First Liberty cases, including:
In response to the anti-Christian bias, the report points to the beneficial effect of several Supreme Court victories by First Liberty Institute. As a result of Groff v. DeJoy, the Office of Personnel Management updated guidance instructing federal agencies to accommodate employees’ religious beliefs and practices. The report also repeatedly references the implications of the Supreme Court’s decision in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District case stating that the Biden Administration continued to promulgate and enforce “scores of federal regulations that reflect pre-Kennedy Establishment Clause frameworks, including approaches historically associated with the Lemon test, and may warrant modernization to align with current First Amendment doctrine.”
Former First Liberty Institute client and U.S. Navy SEAL Phil Mendes was interviewed for the report. Mendes was one of several Navy special warfare officers to participate in First Liberty’s federal lawsuit against the Navy after they were refused religious accommodation from receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. First Liberty attorneys Jeremy Dys and Erin Smith were also interviewed by the task force.
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About First Liberty Institute
First Liberty Institute is the largest legal organization in the nation dedicated exclusively to defending religious freedom for all Americans.
To arrange an interview, contact John Manning at media@firstliberty.org or by calling 972-941-4453.
