Joe Biden’s agenda to crack down on those who are Christian and follow biblical standards already includes his demand for abortion, for transgenderism, for drag queen storytimes and much more.
One of the points is his plan to remove protections for religious rights on campuses across the country.
When President Trump was in office, the government adopted a policy that protected the First Amendment rights of college student groups, and right now allows schools to lose access to education grants if they discriminate against religious student organizations.
“These are very reasonable protections for organizations that have faced constant harassment from university administrators in recent years; yet under the Biden administration, ED has decided that these protections are not necessary,” reported the American Center for Law and Justice.
Now, that organization has submitted its comments on the Biden plan to kill Trump’s campus protections and leave student organizations of faith at risk for the hate some college officials hold for religious students.
The logic behind Biden’s planned changed is those groups don’t need protections because they can sue if they experience discrimination.
But the ACLJ pointed out how that justification fails.
“Lawsuits are costly, and students considering suing universities are at a huge financial disadvantage and risk retaliation,” the organization reported. “Clearly, university administrators are not scared by the threat of lawsuits, as evidenced by the harassment religious groups have faced recently.”
It explained the schools need an incentive to acknowledge the First Amendment rights of others.
It explained in its comments on the planned change, “The Free Exercise Clause ‘protect[s] religious observers against unequal treatment. . . .’ The Supreme Court has generally ruled it unconstitutional to discriminate against a religious organization based solely on its religious affiliation. The Court has also made clear that ‘the Constitution [does not] require complete separation of church and state; it affirmatively mandates accommodation, not merely tolerance, of all religions, and forbids hostility toward any.’
“Most recently, the Supreme Court held that the exclusion of an otherwise eligible recipient from a government grant program solely because that entity is religious in nature violates the Free Exercise Clause. The Court has also held that the Equal Protection Clause commands that ‘all persons similarly situated should be treated alike,’ and that discrimination triggered by the exercise of a fundamental right – here, faith-based organizations participating in Department programs – triggers strict scrutiny under the Equal Protection Clause. Clearly, government must protect religious exercise by essentially being ‘hands off,’ with respect to faith-based organizations that are similar to secular counterparts in all other relevant respects.”
The ACLJ said it then listed for the government many instances of university discrimination against religious student groups, including when the University of Virginia lashed out at the student publication Wide Awake, Vanderbilt demanded Christian student groups renounce their sincerely held, traditional Christian beliefs in order to remain on campus, and the recent rash of discrimination by multiple colleges and universities against Christian communities like InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.
The comment period will be followed by a review by the Department of Education before a decision is announced.
This article was originally published by the WND News Center.
This post originally appeared on WND News Center.