U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on
Tuesday assured a Christian conservative group that the Department of
Justice is preparing rules to protect “religious freedom.”
Sessions made the promise in remarks to
the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a Christian conservative group
opposed to LGBT rights, at its Summit on Religious Liberty in Orange
County, California.
While the event was closed to the press
and the Department of Justice refused to release a transcript, the
conservative website the
Federalist published a copy of the speech Sessions gave at the
event.
The guidance, which Sessions said would
come “soon,” aims to “help agencies follow the Religious
Freedom Restoration Act,” the 1993 federal law which prohibits the
government from substantially burdening a person's exercise of
religion.
“Congress enacted RFRA so that, if
the federal government imposes a burden on somebody’s religious
practice, it had better have a compelling reason,” Sessions said.
“That is a demanding standard, and it’s the law of the land. We
will follow it just as faithfully as we follow every other federal
law. If we’re going to ensure that religious liberty is adequately
protected and our country remains free, then we must ensure that RFRA
is followed.”
In May, President Donald Trump signed
an executive order that directs Sessions – who scored a zero in the
Senate on a survey of LGBT support – to “issue guidance
interpreting religious liberty protections in Federal law.”
In 2016, the Southern Poverty Law
Center (SPLC) designated ADF a “hate group” for its opposition to
LGBT rights. The group is currently representing a Colorado baker
who refused to serve a gay couple. The Supreme Court is expected to
hear the case in the fall.
While Sessions did not mention LGBT
rights in his speech, the fact that he first spoke about the upcoming
guidance to a group that believes business owners should have the
right to discriminate against the LGBT community as an expression of
their faith during a closed-door meeting has LGBT groups concerned.
“Reminder to @TheJusticeDept: You
serve the American people, not fringe hate groups,” HRC President
Chad Griffin tweeted. “We deserve transparency.”