President Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission delivered its final draft report to the president during an Oval Office presentation, capping a yearlong review of religious-liberty issues across education, healthcare, the military and the private sector.
Chairman Dan Patrick, the Texas lieutenant governor, and Vice Chairman Ben Carson presented the 224-page report alongside other commission members. Trump established the commission by executive order in May 2025 to “identify emerging threats to religious liberty, uphold Federal laws that protect all citizens’ full participation in a pluralistic democracy, and protect the free exercise of religion.”
“America was founded by people of faith, and it was settled as a haven for religious freedom,” Trump said during the presentation. “As we prepare to celebrate the 250th anniversary of our founding next week, it is only appropriate that we work to strengthen this fundamental right, and, most essentially, have liberty for generations to come.”
The report draws on seven hearings the commission held over the past year, drawing testimony from more than 100 witnesses on religious liberty in the military, education, healthcare, and the public and private sectors, along with parental rights, faith-based institutions and antisemitism.
Among the cases cited in the report: an elementary school student the commission said was bullied for objecting to a book about gender identity; a teacher who said she was told to remove a cross from her desk; a former Navy SEAL who said he lost his pension after declining the COVID-19 vaccine three years from retirement eligibility; a Harvard graduate who said he faced antisemitic harassment on campus; and a former Alaska Airlines flight attendant who said she was fired after sharing religious objections to the Equality Act.
The report’s recommendations include directing the Justice Department to issue guidance on the Establishment Clause; creating “know your rights” materials for students, parents, teachers, healthcare workers and service members; establishing reporting hotlines for religious liberty complaints; and forming a Justice Department task force to prioritize religious liberty litigation. It also calls for repealing the Johnson Amendment, the tax provision barring nonprofits from endorsing political candidates, and for the Defense Department to streamline its religious accommodation process and continue restoring benefits to service members who left the military over religious objections to COVID-19 vaccination.
The report also recommends combating antisemitism through civil rights enforcement and litigation, and proposes creating a Presidential Medal of Religious Liberty and First Freedom Hero Awards to recognize individuals who have defended religious freedom.
On the long-standing legal principle of separation of church and state, the report takes a more measured tone than some commission members have struck previously, stating that its approach “does not involve or require advocating ‘theocracy’ or even the total elimination of any separation between church and state,” while calling for what it describes as a better balance between the First Amendment’s religious-freedom and establishment clauses.
By: Montana Newsroom wire