For Immediate Release
(Washington, DC, September 17, 2009) Today the American Humanist Association, alongside a broad coalition of 57 other religious, civil liberties and education organizations, called for the review and withdrawal of a 2007 Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) memo that threatens religious liberty and civil rights. The groups, who issued their request via a letter sent to Attorney General Eric Holder, argue that the Bush-era memo inaccurately interprets the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) as allowing religious organizations to discriminate on the basis of religion when hiring for taxpayer-funded positions.
“The Bush administration used the OLC memo to subvert federal law and allow religious groups to side-step important civil rights protections,” said Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the American Humanist Association. “It’s high time it’s this legally unjustifiable rule is rescinded.”
RFRA was enacted in 1993 and prohibits substantially burdening religious exercise without a compelling reason. The 2007 OLC memo broadly interpreted that right to the free exercise as granting an exemption for religious organizations from federal non-discrimination law.
“The argument that requiring religious groups to abide by civil rights law unlawfully curtails their free exercise of religion simply doesn’t stand up to legal scrutiny,” said Speckhardt. “If religious groups want to only hire others of the same religion they are allowed to do so with their own money. But taxpayer dollars should never be used to fund discrimination. Religious groups that accept government money need to play by the same rules as everyone else.”
The letter can be found here.