News From The Week Of January 18 – January 22, 2021

Friend:

It was another emotional week, but this time in a good way! Vice President Kamala Harris became the first woman and the first person of color to hold the office, and Joe Biden was inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States.

In electing these leaders, America voted for democracy, diversity, and the Constitution, including religious freedom for all of us. Our country overcame a violent insurrection, driven by a white Christian nationalist ideology, to complete the transfer of power peacefully and safely. And just hours after the Inauguration, President Biden repealed former president Trump’s Muslim Ban ([link removed]) – the very first item on AU’s “Agenda to Restore and Repair Religious Freedom”([link removed]) – signaling a renewed commitment and good start by our government to rejecting discrimination on the basis of religion.

But the fact is, repairing the damage done to religious freedom by Trump and his allies will still require monumental effort and decisive action.

Americans United is already hard at work. We filed two new lawsuits against the outgoing Trump administration to invalidate harmful last-minute policies.

We are seeking to overturn a Trump administration rule undoing religious freedom protections for those seeking access to social services. This unlawful rule makes it harder for already marginalized populations to access essential social services, even as we continue to reel from a historic pandemic and economic collapse. Read more here: [link removed]

In a second lawsuit, we are urging the court to invalidate a Trump Department of Education rule that forces public universities to fund discrimination by student groups. The new policy requires schools to exempt religious student organizations from nondiscrimination provisions that apply to all other clubs that are funded by student fees. For the most part, this rule is intended to allow religious student clubs to bar LGBTQ students from membership. Our suit makes clear that this unconstitutional rule jeopardizes the rights of all students to be free from religion-based discrimination. Read more here: [link removed]

These cases are part of AU’s leading efforts to ensure the separation of church and state remains a central tenet of our democracy – and, friend, they are made possible by your generous support.

I’ll close by borrowing the words of National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman, “... [W]hile democracy can be periodically delayed, it can never be permanently defeated.”

Rachel K. Laser
President and CEO

A President’s Language Should Be As Inclusive As Possible:
President Joe Biden is an authentically religious man, and his inauguration understandably reflected that. But the inauguration is also meant to include all of America, and Biden should remember that not every American is a person of faith.
READ MORE » [link removed]

President Joe Biden Is Off To A Great Start – Let’s Keep The Momentum Going:
President Joe Biden got right to work after his inauguration, signing a stack of executive orders that included ending Trump’s Muslim Ban, restoring protections for LGBTQ people and scrapping “The 1776 Report” that mischaracterized the United States as an officially Christian nation.
READ MORE » [link removed]

It’s A New Day For The Nation -- And For Church-State Separation:
With the inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, we have high hopes that many of Trump’s policies that undermined church-state separation will be reversed.
READ MORE » [link removed]

On His Way Out The Door, Trump Attempts To Rewrite American History:
The Trump administration released a document called “The 1776 Report” that attempts to rewrite American history by recycling a number of discredited “Christian nation” myths.
READ MORE » [link removed]

Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King, An Advocate Of Church-State Separation:
Dr. Martin Luther King supported the Supreme Court’s decisions striking down government-sponsored prayer in public schools.
READ MORE » [link removed]

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Americans United for Separation of Church and State
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