A review of the past four years under the leadership of President Joe Biden reveals continual assaults on religious freedom and conscience rights. From attacks on foster parents of faith to attempts to strong-arm healthcare workers into performing procedures at odds with their beliefs, the federal government’s opposition to religious freedom has been destructive. 

The immense damage to civil society can be restored only by a robust commitment to timeless principles of liberty — especially religious liberty, America’s first freedom. 

Let’s start with Biden’s Department of Justice. A memo by the Richmond, Virginia, field office of the FBI, sourced with allegations from the Southern Poverty Law Center, a discredited progressive advocacy group, targeted U.S. Catholics who are drawn to the traditional Latin Mass. 

The memo claimed that violent extremists have “sought out and attended traditional Catholic houses of worship.” It suggested “trip wire or source development” within churches that offer the Latin Mass and what it called “radical-traditionalist" Catholic online communities.

Traditionalist Catholics suddenly found themselves wrongfully targeted by a federal government willing to strip them of the religious freedom guaranteed by our constitutional order. And, to rub salt in the wound, our nation’s second Catholic president did not lift a finger to protect them. 

The Biden Department of Justice waged its own ideological warfare — this time against people who resist the normalization of abortion and the surreal fantasies of gender ideology.

Bevelyn Beatty Williams, a pro-life activist, knows this all too well. Williams had three abortions as a young woman, the first when she was only 15. Today, she’s a mother who regularly protests outside abortion facilities. During one of her protests, she pushed a door shut and injured a staff member’s hand. For this offense, she was prosecuted and convicted under the infamous Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act). She is now facing three years in federal prison.

Dr. Eithan Haim also knows the ruthlessness of the Biden administration. When he was a surgical resident he told a journalist that the hospital in Texas where he worked had secretly continued transgender procedures on minors despite Texas’ ban and the hospital publicly pledging that it would stop. For the “crime” of conferring with a journalist about the hospital’s illegal actions, Haim was indicted by Biden’s DOJ, charged with violating the privacy rights of patients.

Such malicious prosecutorial zeal is in stark contrast to the DOJ’s willingness to look the other way when it comes to protecting religious institutions. It did virtually nothing to hold pro-abortion zealots responsible for vandalizing more than 300 Catholic churches after a draft of the Supreme Court’s opinion in Dobbs was leaked in May 2022 despite being authorized under the FACE Act to prosecute such offenses. 

Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) similarly abandoned its obligation to protect medical conscience rights, specifically for those who object to abortion and transgender interventions. 

Consider how HHS dealt with the University of Vermont Medical Center. The center deceptively misled and forced a nurse to assist in an elective surgical abortion against her well-known religious and moral objection. As the victim, the nurse has no options to sue on her own under current law — it was up to the federal government to investigate her claims and vindicate her rights.

The first Trump administration did just that. After undertaking a thorough investigation, its Office of Civil Rights at HHS issued findings of a violation of federal law and its DOJ went to court to enforce compliance. Instead of continuing the prosecution of this blatant violation of conscience rights, the Biden administration quietly and voluntarily dismissed the case.     

Sensing the need to develop a unit of staff specially trained and tasked with receiving and investigating allegations of religious freedom and conscience rights violations in health care, the first Trump administration started the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division within HHS’ civil rights office. The Biden administration disbanded this powerful tool for protecting people of faith working in our health-care system. 

But it gets worse. The progressive agenda at HHS even targeted grandparents. 

Scott and Colleen Freeman are considering adopting their grandson, whom they have been raising for the past year and a half. Their daughter continues to struggle with mental health illness and drug addiction. Before they could do so, however, Washington state authorities required them to take an online course. That course included the question, “If your grandson wanted to wear a red dress to school, would you support that?” 

The Freemans are practicing Christians. They believe in the reality of biological sex. So they said “No.” They now live in fear that the state will take away their grandson.

Biden’s HHS gave them good reason to be afraid. It created a new rule requiring foster families to undergo gender-identity training. Families that don’t comply cannot foster kids who currently identify as transgender. Following Biden’s lead, California Gov. Gavin Newsom just notified foster families in the state must affirm the gender identity of foster children, regardless of their religious beliefs. 

Finally, while the Supreme Court continues to vindicate the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom and free speech, it has done so in spite of this administration. 

Biden’s solicitor general’s office was often absent in cases before the Supreme Court that involved religious freedom interests. On the occasions when it did get involved, it appeared in support of institutions trampling on the rights of religious Americans. 

After Joe Kennedy, a high school football coach from Washington State, was reprimanded for his private prayers of thanksgiving after games, the office was nowhere to be found when his case was reviewed by the Supreme Court.

Lorie Smith wasn’t so lucky. When the Christian website designer from Colorado asked to be spared from having to create custom websites for same-sex weddings, the solicitor general’s office sided with the state in suggesting that she be compelled to do so. 

Fortunately, in both cases, freedom prevailed.     

People of faith overwhelmingly supported Donald Trump’s presidential bid this year. There is nothing surprising about their rejection of the Biden-Harris administration. Religious liberty has been under vindictive attack from the Biden administration for the past four years. 

We must pray that President-elect Trump is being fully briefed on these outrages, because it will be his responsibility to protect our first freedom.