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National Groups Want Bush Administration's RFRA Memo Withdrawn

By Howard M. Friedman

Yesterday 58 national civil rights and religious groups sent a letter (full text) to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder seeking a change in an interpretation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act issued by the Bush administration in 2007. In the 2007 memo, the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel concluded that RFRA trumps the religious anti-discrimination provisions of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, allowing a Christian youth program to receive a federal grant even though the organization hires only Christian staff. (See prior posting.) The letter to Attorney General Holder reads in part:

The OLC Memo wrongly asserts that RFRA is ?reasonably construed? to require that a federal agency categorically exempt a religious organization from an explicit federal nondiscrimination provision tied to a grant program. Although the OLC Memo?s conclusion is focused on one Justice Department program, its overly-broad and questionable interpretation of RFRA has been cited by other Federal agencies and extended to other programs and grants. The guidance in the OLC Memo is not justified under applicable legal standards and threatens to tilt policy toward an unwarranted end that would damage civil rights and religious liberty....

We accordingly request that the Obama Administration publicly announce its intention to review the OLC Memo, and that at the end of that review, withdraw the OLC Memo and expressly disavow its erroneous interpretation of RFRA....

The Anti Defamation League (one of the signatories) issued a press release calling attention to the letter. [Thanks to Michael Lieberman for the lead.]

Full post as published by Religion Clause on September 18, 2009 (boomark / email).