GOP Senators Lead Charge Against Biden Trying To Nix Rule Protecting Campus Religious Groups

As the Biden administration tries to overturn them, Senate Republicans introduced legislation to define a convention protecting the rights for religious parties to congregate on university campuses.

In order to guarantee that public universities do not deny religious student organizations” any right, benefit, or privilege ,” such as student activities funding and access to campus facilities,” that is otherwise afforded to other student organization at the public institution ,” the Trump administration introduced the Religious Liberty and Free Inquiry Rule three years ago. The Biden administration, though, proposed a reversal of the convention next month. Universities that are found to be in violation of such freedom risk losing federal grants under the current policy.

The Equal Campus Access Act was introduced by 14 Senate Republicans, including Sens. James Lankford( R-OK ), Tim Scott, and others, to codify the current law into federal law. In a text to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, the politicians argued that if the policy was reversed, First Amendment freedoms may be violated by spiritual student organizations.

” School organizations, including religious ones, have a significant impact on campus and on college students’ world.” However, the proposed rule jeopardizes students’ capacity to develop and learn while engaging in and adhering to their various beliefs, according to the letter. To learn and practice their faith with other individuals who share their interests, students want an organized company on university campuses. They shouldn’t be treated unfairly because of their honestly held religious ideas; they should be given the same rights as any other college company on campus.

The Education Department argued that the previous rule should be overturned because it tends to cause” confusion among organizations ,” makes it” unduly burdensome” for leaders to look into allegations of cruelty, and is” not necessary” to protect free speech and the exercise of religion.” The lawmakers argued that calling the protection of religious freedom” unduly burdensome” represents an” alarming admission” from the Education Department and that it has failed to” provide any examples” of universities formally complaining about the confusing nature of the rules.

The Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, and Reformed University Fellowship are just a few of the well-known national religious establishments that have lately written their own text supporting the Equal Campus Access Act. A free and fully pluralistic society depends on the ability to come up based on spiritually informed beliefs, according to the entities.

Critics view the proposed policy reversal as one of several Biden administration policies that pose a threat to religious freedom. House Republicans pushed earlier this week to ensure that the upcoming national budget’s email forbids businesses from discriminating against individuals or groups on the basis of a” sincerely held religious conviction, or moral judgment, that wife is or should be recognized as, one man and one woman.”

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President Joe Biden endorsed the Respect for Marriage Act, which codifies same-sex marriage protections into national act in accordance with the Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, and this led to the call for obvious religious liberty safeguards in the budget. To support the bill, which was passed into law in December, Democratic politicians enlisted the assistance of 39 Republicans in the House and 10 Republican senators.