Lame Duck President Biden has less than a month left in office. Eyeing the inauguration of President Trump, the Biden administration has withdrawn a series of proposed rules that sparked backlash from conservatives and religious liberty advocates. If enacted these rules would have had a massive negative effect on religious liberty in America. This is a major defeat for the embattled Democrat.
Shortly after the 2020 election, the Department of Education made moves to repeal a decision by the Trump administration declaring that public colleges and universities “shall not deny to any student organization whose stated mission is religious in nature” any “right, benefit, or privilege that is otherwise afforded to other student organizations” due to “the religious student organization’s beliefs, practices, policies, speech, membership standards, or leadership standards, which are informed by sincerely held religious beliefs.”
In a note posted to the Federal Register, the DOE explained that the proposal had received 58,000 comments and pointed to “the concerns raised by commenters both in support of and in opposition to” the proposal in addition to “the forthcoming change in administration” and “the significant resources needed to review and consider all relevant matters presented in the public comments” as why they backpedaled
Senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, Julie Burke, was pleased by the development: The Biden-Harris administration’s dropping of its midnight rule to repeal the Free Inquiry Rule is a win for every student’s First Amendment rights,” she said. “Under the rule, the Department of Education would have sought to enable universities to prevent religious student groups from speaking freely and from selecting their own leaders consistent with their beliefs.”
She went on to say that “The First Amendment is for everyone, and this freedom is crucial to preserving a pluralistic society,” Burke added. “But once these protections are thrown out the window on campuses, campuses cease to be a free marketplace of ideas. Alliance Defending Freedom rejoices in this decision as it allows students to speak freely.”
In another notice, the Departments of Health and Human Services, Treasury, and Labor proposed a rule that would have allowed employers opposed to contraception on religious grounds to refrain from covering contraceptives. This has been a major issue for conservative religious groups. The Biden administration explained they wanted “time and resources on matters other than finalizing these rules.”
The proposed rules would have abolished a regulation enabling employers with non-religious moral objections to contraceptives from obtaining an exemption from the requirement to provide contraceptive coverage in employer-sponsored healthcare plans. This litigation dates back to over a decade ago when the Obama administration introduced the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
The Supreme Court repeatedly fell on the side of religious liberty. In 2014, the Court sided with Hobby Lobby. Who sought to secure an exemption from the healthcare law’s requirement that employer-sponsored healthcare plans cover contraceptives, including abortion-inducing drugs. Another prominent case featured a group of Catholic nuns known as the Little Sisters of the Poor from having to abide by the contraceptive mandate.