Just over six months into his second term, President Donald Trump has again proven himself a staunch defender of religious liberty following four years of relentless assault on faith communities by the Biden administration. In addition to actively defending the speech and conscience rights of religious Americans, Trump and congressional Republicans are exposing how Democrats have weaponized the government against people of faith.
Trump’s first term was filled with promises kept for religious Americans. He nominated and confirmed more than 230 conservative judges to the federal bench who were committed to upholding the First Amendment, including three Supreme Court justices who have delivered multiple victories for religious liberty. He took steps to protect the conscience rights of doctors, nurses, teachers, and faith-based groups like the Little Sisters of the Poor, defended faith-based adoption and foster care centers, launched the International Religious Freedom Alliance to fight back against global religious persecution, and ensured American taxpayer dollars were not being used to fund abortions overseas.
That all changed, however, under Joe Biden. Beginning in January 2021, the federal government took an adversarial stance against Americans who protested abortion or spoke out against sexualized school curriculum and library books that targeted young children. Peaceful pro-life citizens who protested abortion facilities were slapped with heavy-handed federal charges and, in many cases, prison time for what amounted to, at most, misdemeanor trespassing.
In one infamous case, the Biden FBI conducted a dawn raid on the home of Mark Houck, a Catholic pro-life father of seven, terrorizing his wife and children. Houck’s crime? Pushing a pro-abortion activist away from his young son after the other man began hurling expletive-laden insults and aggressively approaching Houck.
Other Americans who peacefully sat in the hallways of abortion facilities, prayed, and sang songs, suddenly found themselves facing years in prison for supposedly violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE). The law, while ostensibly protecting access to both pro-life and abortion facilities, has been disproportionately used by Democrats to persecute pro-lifers. In one outrageous example, the DOJ prosecuted Eva Edl, an 89-year-old survivor of a Communist concentration camp, who sat in front of an abortion facility entrance in her wheelchair “praying and singing hymns,” according to Alliance Defending Freedom.
At the same time, the Biden DOJ did nothing to stop the rash of attacks on churches and pro-life pregnancy centers following the Dobbs v. Jackson Supreme Court decision in 2022.
Since taking office again, Trump has ended the government’s assault on religious Americans and sought to punish those responsible for it.
One of Trump’s most notable actions came early on in January, when he ordered the Justice Department to sharply limit enforcement of the FACE Act, requiring top-level approval for any abortion-related prosecutions and dismissing several ongoing cases. The move was a correction of Biden-era abuses that weaponized federal law against peaceful pro-life activists, returning authority to state and local jurisdictions.
That same month, just a few days after being sworn in, Trump pardoned 23 pro-life Americans who were unjustly prosecuted under the FACE Act.
In February, Trump issued an executive order on “eradicating anti-Christian bias.” That order establishes a task force and confirms that the Trump administration will “ensure that any unlawful and improper conduct, policies, or practices that target Christians are identified, terminated, and rectified.”
Last month, the Trump administration also effectively abolished the so-called Johnson Amendment, which prohibited tax-exempt organizations, including churches, from endorsing or opposing political candidates. For decades, the IRS had used the Johnson Amendment to censor and silence pastors and religious leaders.
The DOJ, led now by Attorney General Pam Bondi, has also helped shed light on how the department violated the First Amendment rights of Americans under the Biden administration. Bondi’s predecessor, Merrick Garland, infamously authored a memo in October 2021 that asked federal law enforcement to work with local leaders to target parents who spoke out at school board meetings – often in defense of traditional Christian values – as potential threats. That memo came in response to a letter from the National School Boards Association, which accused parents and other concerned citizens of “domestic terrorism” for exercising their First Amendment freedoms.
New documents released under Bondi also show the White House and DOJ sought a “federal hook” to get involved in prosecutions. “We’re aware; the challenge here is finding a federal hook. But WH has been in touch about whether we can assist in some form or fashion,” deputy attorney general aide Kevin Chambers wrote just days before Garland’s memo, according to Fox News.
Just a day prior to Garland’s memo, a DOJ attorney also warned that the activities being targeted were clearly protected by the First Amendment, saying “the vast, vast majority of the behavior cited cannot be reached by federal law.”
As recently reported by AMAC Newsline, the FBI, under Director Kash Patel, has also released thousands more documents relating to a memo targeting supposedly “radical” Catholics who oppose abortion and LGBT ideology.
The documents show former Director Christopher Wray misled Congress when he said a controversial 2023 memo targeting “traditional” Catholics, defined in part as those who carry a rosary or participate in the Latin mass, was confined to a single field office in Richmond, Virginia. In reality, the FBI targeted a Catholic priest, tracked his credit card and travels, and distributed the memo to 1,000 employees in multiple offices across the country and around the world. The law enforcement agency also labeled Catholics as “radical” for being pro-life and supporting “conservative family values/roles.” These revelations would not have come to light had Kamala Harris won last November.
Trump and his cabinet are also actively intervening in other cases to support the religious rights of Americans. The Justice Department announced an investigation into the state of Washington soon after its left-wing Governor Bob Ferguson signed a law that threatens Catholic priests with jail time, according to Catholic News Agency. The Washington law requires Catholic priests to report penitents, meaning people who go to them to confess their sins, if they mention certain kinds of abuse.
The Trump administration is also investigating the University of Michigan’s health system over allegations it fired a Christian physician’s assistant who declined to use someone’s “preferred” pronouns. “The medical professional allegedly requested religious accommodations from certain employment practices, such as practices requiring use of patient pronouns that do not align with the patient’s sex, and from assisting in certain sex trait modification procedures, which she opposed due to her religious beliefs,” the Department of Health and Human Services announced in June.
For religious Americans, and Christians in particular, Trump’s second term has already been filled with monumental victories. With more than three more years to go, there will surely be plenty more to come.
Matt Lamb is a contributor for AMAC Newsline and an associate editor for The College Fix. He previously worked for Students for Life of America, Students for Life Action, and Turning Point USA. He previously interned for Open the Books. His writing has also appeared in the Washington Examiner, The Federalist, LifeSiteNews, Human Life Review, Headline USA, and other outlets. The opinions expressed are his own. Follow him @mattlamb22 on X.
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