A lawsuit against the Trump administration’s Religious Liberty Commission has been dismissed by a federal court, plaintiffs’ legal representatives announced July 27.
A multifaith coalition filed the legal action in February to challenge the legality, secrecy and religiously narrow makeup of the commission established by presidential order in 2025.
The suit was brought by Interfaith Alliance, Muslims for Progressive Values, Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and Hindus for Human Rights. They were represented by Americans United for Separation of Church and State and Democracy Forward.
While ostensibly created “to defend the religious liberty of all Americans,” membership was stacked in favor of Christian nationalists dedicated to the creation of a “Judeo-Christian” nation. Members included Paula White, Eric Metaxas and Franklin Graham. Its chairman, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, has denied the existence of church-state separation and described the constitutional principle as the “biggest lie that’s been told in America since our founding.”
The lawsuit, Interfaith Alliance, et al. v. Donald Trump et al., contended the Trump administration violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act and Administrative Procedures Act in creating the commission, and argued the group itself was a threat to the religious pluralism and the separation of church and state that have been essential to American democracy since the nation’s founding.
A number of the commission’s meetings were held in the “explicitly Christian” Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., and closed with prayers invoking Jesus’ name, according to the lawsuit. “The commission’s meetings have repeatedly referenced the belief that the United States was founded as a ‘Judeo-Christian nation’ and the membership reflects that viewpoint.”
Members of the commission publicly promoted that worldview and “advocated for discrimination against minority groups under the guise of ‘religious liberty’ and otherwise supported policies that threaten religious freedom for all those who do not conform to their particular worldview,” the suit contended.
John P. Cronan
But U.S. District Judge John Cronan in New York concluded establishment of the commission did not violate the Federal Advisory Committee Act and has not operated in a religiously discriminatory manner. His opinion described the body as “fairly balanced.”
“Its members include workers in the public, private and nonprofit sectors, have widely varying life experiences — from a former host of a popular television show to a state lieutenant governor, are religious leaders as well as rank-and-file congregants, and — to the extent that it matters — encompass adherents of at least five different religions.”
Cronan, a Trump appointee, also disagreed with the lawsuit’s assertion that sharing a worldview is necessarily problematic. The commission, he said, “must only be ‘fairly’ balanced — not perfectly balanced.” And preferring a “Judeo-Christian” approach to faith does not mean all members of the commission are in complete harmony on various issues, Cronan added.
“There is a wide diversity of both Christian (Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, Greek Orthodox, etc.) and Jewish (Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, etc.) religious denominations, and there are extensive disagreements between and among these faith traditions on important issues. Given the wide diversity of Christian and Jewish beliefs, there is no reason to think that an evangelical member would ‘balance out’ a Catholic member any less than a Buddhist member would,” he wrote. “And if an unavoidable reality of a 14-member commission is that some groups will be left out, plaintiffs do not justify why leaving out non-‘Judeo Christian’ religions is any more imbalanced than leaving out religions within that group.”
But there would be no harm even if the commission was religiously unbalanced because “the faith of RLC members is not relevant to the commission’s function, which is to ‘produce a comprehensive report’ on issues such as ‘the foundations of religious liberty in America, the impact of religious liberty on American society, (and) current threats to domestic religious liberty,’” the judge wrote.
The same group of plaintiffs filed a separate lawsuit in April to block the commission from delivering its report to President Donald Trump. But declaring it was “bringing back religion in our country,” the commission delivered a draft report to the White House in late June.
The plaintiffs and their legal representatives said the lawsuit, despite its dismissal, succeeded in compelling the commission to release transcripts, minutes and documents to meet the court’s deadline.
“In addition, after plaintiffs filed suit, the commission agreed to make a draft report available for public comment and hold a public meeting to respond to issues raised by interested parties and members of the public. These actions increase transparency and give the public an opportunity to be heard,” Americans United and Democracy Forward said in a statement. “The long overdue publication of these documents was a resounding concession by the government and a significant victory for the coalition that demonstrated the necessity of challenging the administration’s unlawful actions.”
The coalition also expressed satisfaction that the lawsuit forced the commission to take affirmative action on behalf of the American people.
“Even before this decision, our litigation helped uncover the information the Trump-Vance administration attempted to hide from the public about this biased and unlawful body. Religious liberty and pluralism are foundational American values, and we remain committed to fighting for a democracy that does not promote a single religious belief and ignores others. We are grateful that this case achieved a major goal by forcing greater transparency, and we will continue our work.”
But it’s a shame it took so much time and effort to get the commission to do the right thing, AU President Rachel Laser said when the documents were released.
“We’re glad the commission is finally taking some of its legal duties seriously, but it shouldn’t take a federal lawsuit to force compliance with basic rules like showing your work,” she said. “These files only confirm for all to see the fatal flaw at the core of this commission: its Christian Nationalist bias. Rather than advancing religious liberty, this commission is intent on imposing one ultra-conservative version of Christianity on all Americans.”
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