President Donald Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission has been assailed from the beginning as a front for advancing evangelical grievances, and now a coalition has sued to stop a forthcoming report from the body.
The lawsuit, Interfaith Alliance, et al. v. Trump, et al., was filed by Democracy Forward and Americans United for Separation of Church and State on behalf of Interfaith Alliance, Muslims for Progressive Values, Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and Hindus for Human Rights.
The coalition claims Trump’s commission violates the Federal Advisory Committee Act and offers unbalanced and biased viewpoints. The coalition wants the court to order the Commission to comply with FACA’s transparency requirements by publishing documents regarding the committee’s proceedings.
This is the second such case brought against the Religious Liberty Commission by the same coalition.
Paul Raushenbush
Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush v. Donald Trump was filed in federal district court in New York in February, seeking a declaration the board was unlawfully founded and constituted and to require any documents and recommendations it produces to be made public.
However, a new and more urgent need has arisen, the coalition says in the latest suit”
The Commission was initially slated to conclude its operations in September 2027. But just over two weeks ago, on March 16, 2026, the Commission announced that it would be abruptly concluding its operations a year and a half ahead of schedule, holding its final meeting on April 13, and issuing its final report on or around May 1, 2026. Given this abrupt change, plaintiffs now request emergency relief.
Plaintiffs will be irreparably harmed by the publication of the Commission’s report. The biased and illegal composition of the Commission, and the Commission’s violation of transparency requirements and its frustration of plaintiffs’ ability to stay abreast of the Commission’s activities and provide input to the Commission’s final report, will taint any final report produced by the Commission. And once the Commission’s final report is issued, disseminated, and read by policy makers, the damage will be done.
In the April 2 filing, the coalition asks the court to issue a preliminary injunction ordering the commission to immediately release meeting transcripts and other documents required by law and to delay the publication of its report as the full case is considered by the court.
Pam Bondi, U.S. Attorney General, during a press conference at Port Everglades on April 09, 2025, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
In an interesting twist of timing, the lawsuit was filed just days before President Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi, who was spearheading the Religious Liberty Commission and named its members. What role that change in leadership will have on the commission is not clear. The commission is chaired by Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.
The new request for a court injunction notes when Trump announced creation of the commission, he said it was to defend religious liberty for all Americans and celebrate America’s tradition of peaceful religious pluralism.
“However, these lofty ideals were swiftly disregarded and proved to be shambolic,” the suit states. “President Trump and Attorney General Bondi — who is generally tasked with performing the functions of the president for the Commission — appointed to the commission only extremist individuals who believe that America is, and should be, a ‘Judeo-Christian’ nation, advocate for government-endorsed religion, and have a history of discriminating against disfavored groups.
“And despite the Commission’s stated goal of celebrating religious diversity and religious pluralism, no member of the Commission represents a minority religion (other than one Orthodox Jewish member) and no member represents an interfaith perspective. On top of selecting a skewed and biased membership, the Commission has refused to release agendas, meeting minutes, transcripts and other Commission materials.”
The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Ayeshga Khan
Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, president of Interfaith Alliance, explained of the suit: “The government has no right to pick and choose which religious beliefs to promote and which to marginalize — and a commission that doesn’t reflect or respect true religious liberty in our country has no right to issue a formal report on it.”
Ayesha Khan, senior legal advisor for Democracy Forward, said: “The Trump-Vance administration’s so-called Religious Liberty Commission is not about religious liberty at all. Instead, the commission is about pursuing a culture of Christian nationalism that seeks to divide and isolate people across our nation.”
Rachel Laser, president of Americans United, said: “The Religious Liberty Commission was never about protecting religious liberty; it was built to tear down church-state separation and favor a very specific brand of Christianity. Any report from this commission will only continue to encourage religious partisanship and divisiveness as we continue to see attacks on true religious freedom. The court should not allow the Religious Liberty Commission to rush to publish a prejudicial report until the court has ruled on the unlawful bias of the committee itself.”
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