The Freedom From Religion Foundation is condemning the Trump administration’s newly released Religious Liberty Commission report as a roadmap for dismantling the constitutional separation between church and state and replacing it with government favoritism toward Christianity.

Rather than protecting religious liberty for all Americans, the commission’s 224-page report repeatedly attacks the Establishment Clause, dismisses decades of settled constitutional law and recommends policies that would entangle government with religion on an unprecedented scale.

“This report has almost nothing to do with protecting religious liberty,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “It is a political manifesto that attempts to redefine religious freedom as a special privilege for conservative Christianity.”

The commission was established by President Trump in May 2025 and chaired by Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. During its hearings, commissioners repeatedly attacked state-church separation and promoted Christian nationalist arguments. The final report simply codifies those views into official recommendations for the federal government.

Among its most troubling recommendations, the commission urges the Department of Justice to reject the longstanding understanding of the Establishment Clause, Congress to repeal the Johnson Amendment, the creation of “religious liberty” hotlines and a Religious Liberty Task Force, judicial appointments aligned with the commission’s ideological vision, and restored military benefits to individuals who refused COVID-19 vaccines on asserted religious grounds.

The report repeatedly claims that the constitutional principle of church-state separation is a “myth” and argues that religious liberty should instead function as a “bridge” between church and state.

“That is exactly backward,” says FFRF Co-President Dan Barker. “The Establishment Clause exists precisely because the government must remain neutral on matters of religion. Religious liberty flourishes when the government neither favors nor disfavors religion.”

The commission’s central premise rests on a false dichotomy. Although the phrase “separation of church and state” does not appear verbatim in the Constitution, it has long been understood as shorthand for the First Amendment’s prohibitions on establishing religion and interfering with its free exercise.

The report also presents a profoundly distorted account of religious liberty in America.

Although it claims to defend “all Americans,” the report overwhelmingly centers alleged grievances involving conservative Christians while paying scant attention to the religious discrimination routinely experienced by atheists, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Native American practitioners, Sikhs, minority Christian denominations and the religiously unaffiliated. Even its discussion of antisemitism is framed almost entirely through the commission’s preferred political lens while ignoring the broader reality that religious freedom belongs equally to every American.

“The commission defines religious liberty almost exclusively as the right of conservative Christians to receive exemptions from laws they dislike,” says Gaylor. “True religious liberty means the government cannot pick winners and losers among religions or between religion and nonreligion.”

The report repeatedly portrays routine constitutional limits on government religious endorsement as examples of anti-religious hostility. It criticizes restrictions on religious displays in public schools, calls for expanded government support for religious education through school choice programs, urges greater government accommodation of religious expression by public employees and proposes new federal mechanisms to encourage complaints whenever individuals believe their religious expression has been limited.

Many of these recommendations would invite constitutional violations rather than prevent them.

Public school students unquestionably possess the right to pray voluntarily, discuss religion with classmates and express their personal beliefs. The Constitution prohibits government officials from using public schools to promote or endorse religion. Teachers, principals and other government employees have constitutional obligations that differ from those of private citizens because they wield the authority of the state.

Likewise, churches and religious organizations already enjoy broad constitutional protections under the Free Exercise Clause, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and decades of Supreme Court precedent. The commission offers virtually no evidence that these existing protections are inadequate. Instead, it seeks to transform religious liberty from a shield protecting conscience into a sword allowing religious entities to receive preferential treatment.

One of the report’s most dangerous recommendations is the repeal of the Johnson Amendment. Eliminating that safeguard would effectively convert tax-exempt churches into taxpayer-subsidized political-action committees, allowing houses of worship to endorse candidates while continuing to receive the substantial benefits of tax-exempt status.

The report also urges presidents to nominate judges who share the commission’s preferred constitutional approach rather than emphasizing judicial impartiality.

Equally revealing is what the report omits.

The commission expresses virtually no concern about increasing efforts to impose religion in public schools, to display the Ten Commandments in government buildings, to inject prayer into official government functions or to use public funds to advance religious education. Nor does it meaningfully address discrimination against the growing number of religiously unaffiliated Americans, who now comprise nearly one-third of the U.S. population.

“The commission starts from the assumption that Christianity deserves a privileged place in public life,” Gaylor says. “That is not religious liberty. It is government favoritism.”

The First Amendment guarantees every American the right to practice any religion, or none at all, without government interference or favoritism. That constitutional promise has made the United States one of the world’s most religiously diverse nations.

FFRF is encouraging Americans who value genuine religious freedom to submit comments opposing the commission’s recommendations before the public comment period closes.

The commission has opened its draft report for public comment through Monday, July 12, 2026. Comments may be submitted by email to RLC@usdoj.gov using the subject line:
PUBLIC COMMENT – [TOPIC OR CHAPTER NUMBER] – [NAME]

The Department of Justice notes that all comments are public records. Commenters should avoid including personally identifiable information, such as home addresses, in their submissions.

“This report does not speak for the millions of Americans who understand that religious liberty depends on government neutrality,” says Barker. “We urge everyone who values the First Amendment to make their voices heard before this report is finalized.”

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to defending the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters relating to nontheism. With about 41,000 members, FFRF is the largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics and humanists) in North America. For more information, visit ffrf.org.

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