by Jorge Gomez • 3 minutes
First Liberty President, CEO & Chief Counsel Kelly Shackelford has been appointed to serve on a new Religious Liberty Commission established by the Trump administration.
On Thursday, during a White House ceremony celebrating the National Day of Prayer, President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating the Religious Liberty Commission.
Kelly will remain and continue to serve in his current leadership role at First Liberty. He will serve concurrently on the Commission.
Represented by Kelly, First Liberty Institute is the only nonprofit religious liberty legal organization of its kind on the Commission.
“I am incredibly honored to be selected to join such a prestigious group of leaders on the Commission in President Trump’s effort to protect religious liberty in our nation,” Kelly said.
“For too long, government officials have been hostile to expressions of faith despite First Liberty’s numerous victories at the Supreme Court,” he added. “It will be a privilege to do everything we can to protect religious liberty and restore our First Freedom for all Americans.”
The President’s executive order reaffirms his administration’s policy to “promote citizens’ pride in our foundational history, identify emerging threats to religious liberty, uphold Federal laws that protect all citizens’ full participation in a pluralistic democracy, and protect the free exercise of religion.”
Kelly was in the White House’s Rose Garden alongside the President and other appointees. Former First Liberty client Coach Joe Kennedy was also present at the ceremony. As a musical ensemble led the group in worship, Coach Kennedy took a knee on the Rose Garden in silent prayer.
Here’s Kelly giving us a quick update just moments after the announcement was made:
The Commission will consist of several members, including:
Over the course of the next year, the Commission is tasked with holding several hearings to gather information and hear testimony from Americans who have been impacted by religious discrimination and attacks on their constitutional rights.
These hearings will be an opportunity to document the legal battles and stories of First Liberty clients, as well as many more Americans whose religious freedom is under attack.
The Commission can also play a vital role in informing and educating millions of Americans about newly restored protections for religious liberty. The U.S. Supreme Court has issued multiple landmark religious freedom rulings in recent years, which overturned decades of bad precedents and gave Americans more religious freedom than they’ve had in 50+ years.
Those include four major victories by First Liberty at the Supreme Court in our Coach Kennedy, Bladensburg Peace Cross, Treat Children Fairly and Faithful Carrier cases. Each of those wins is strengthening and transforming the law to be more favorable to the free exercise of religion, just as America’s Founders intended.
But many Americans still don’t know about the seismic legal change that’s happening right now when it comes to religious expression.
The Commission will be essential in making sure that Americans—as well as schools, colleges, government agencies, corporations, ministries, houses of worship and communities nationwide—are aware of these precedent-setting rulings.
The Commission is expected to issue a final report to the President. This will include recommendations and proposed actions the federal government can take to safeguard America’s promise of religious freedom for all.
The Commission will dissolve on July 4, 2026, the 250th anniversary of American independence.
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