The Freedom From Religion Foundation has submitted an official public comment strongly opposing the draft report issued by the federal Religious Liberty Commission, warning that its recommendations would undermine one of the Constitution’s most fundamental protections against uniting religion and government.

“The commission has turned the idea of religious liberty on its head,” says FFRF Co-President Dan Barker. “Instead of protecting every American’s freedom of conscience, it repeatedly treats religious liberty as a license for the government to privilege believers and promote religion. That’s not what the First Amendment says, and it’s not what our founders intended.”

In its extensive comment, FFRF argues that the commission’s report is not an objective examination of religious liberty but rather an advocacy document promoting a narrow ideological agenda that mischaracterizes the Establishment Clause while minimizing the constitutional rights of religious minorities and the growing number of nonreligious Americans.

“[The commission’s report] rests on a false premise: that the constitutional separation between religion and government is somehow hostile to religion,” says FFRF in its formal comment. “The opposite is true. The Establishment Clause protects religious liberty by ensuring that the government neither favors nor disfavors religion. This principle has safeguarded both believers and nonbelievers throughout our nation’s history and has helped foster one of the most religiously diverse societies in the world.”

FFRF’s comment challenges the report’s repeated dismissal of longstanding constitutional principles separating church and state. The state/church watchdog notes that the Framers deliberately sought to keep government out of religion, citing James Madison’s warnings that government involvement corrupts religion and Thomas Jefferson’s famous description of the First Amendment as building a “wall of separation between church and state.”

The comment also criticizes the commission for conflating private religious exercise — which enjoys robust constitutional protection — with government-sponsored religious activity. While individuals and public officials retain the right to practice their religion, FFRF emphasizes that government entities may not use official authority to promote religion or coerce participation in religious exercises.

Among the commission’s recommendations that FFRF opposes are proposals to:

• Encourage the Department of Justice to reinterpret the Establishment Clause in favor of government promotion of religion.
• Create new federal “religious liberty” task forces, hotlines and reporting systems designed to advance preferred religious claims.
• Weaken restrictions on partisan political activity by tax-exempt churches through repeal of the Johnson Amendment.
• Expand government promotion of religion in public institutions.
• Encourage judicial appointments based on a particular ideological vision of religious liberty.
• Create new government awards recognizing a narrow conception of “religious liberty.”

FFRF also warns that the commission largely ignores the constitutional rights of atheists, agnostics, humanists, religious minorities and Americans who simply wish to be free from government-sponsored religion.

“Religious liberty belongs equally to every American, including those who practice no religion at all,” FFRF writes. “A government that favors Christianity necessarily diminishes the equal citizenship of everyone else.”

The organization stresses that genuine religious liberty does not require government support of religion but government restraint.

“Americans remain free to pray or not pray, attend religious services or abstain, preach, evangelize, criticize religion, change beliefs, or reject religion altogether precisely because the Constitution prohibits government from taking sides in matters of faith,” the comment states.

FFRF concludes that the commission should substantially revise or withdraw portions of its draft report that seek to redefine the Establishment Clause or privilege particular religious beliefs through governmental action.

“The Religious Liberty Commission is asking the public to comment, and we hope Americans will do exactly that,” Barker says. “If you believe the government should not be in the business of promoting religion or privileging one faith over another, now is the time to speak up. Religious liberty belongs to all of us.”

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.

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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