➤ EXEMPTIONS, from p.8
The Trump administration’s
proposed rule was unsurprisingly
shrouded in controversy, drawing
more than 109,000 comments.
The Department of Labor acknowledged
many critical comments and
dismissed them anyway, such as
one area in which the administration
admitted some folks argued
that the rule would violate the Establishment
Clause, which is supposed
to prevent the government
from favoring a particular religion.
“Regarding the comment that
the rule violates the Establishment
Clause by funding positions that
require specifi c religious beliefs or
customs, that is a criticism of the
E.O. 11246 religious exemption itself,
which has been part of federal
law for nearly twenty years and is
not at issue in this rulemaking,”
the rule states.
In another example with potentially
the most far-reaching implications,
the administration pointed
to comments that “specifi cally
objected to OFCCP’s reliance on
Hobby Lobby” — a landmark 2014
Supreme Court case concluding
that a closely held for-profi t corporation
can be exempt from rules
that cut against its religious beliefs
— “as justifying or requiring the
proposed removal of the nonprofi t
status factor…”
The administration also cast
those concerns aside.
“In consideration of these comments,
OFCCP is revising the defi -
nition of Religious corporation, association,
educational institution,
or society in the fi nal rule… With
that said, OFCCP recognizes that,
in certain rare circumstances, an
organization might be for-profi t yet
still be fairly considered a religious
rather than secular organization.”
The rule drew strong criticism
from LGBTQ groups, especially legal
groups.
“It is hard to overstate the harm
that the Offi ce of Federal Contract
Compliance Programs is visiting
on LGBTQ people, women, religious
minorities, and others with
the sledgehammer it is taking to
federal nondiscrimination protections,”
Lambda Legal’s director
of law and policy, Jennifer Pizer,
said in a written statement. “For
nearly 80 years, it has been a core
American principle that seeking
and receiving federal tax dollars
to do work for the American people
means promising not to discriminate
against one’s own workers
with those funds. This new rule
uses religion to create an essentially
limitless exemption allowing
taxpayer-funded contractors to impose
their religious beliefs on their
employees without regard to the
resulting harms, such as unfair
job terms, invasive proselytizing
and other harassment that make
job settings unbearable for workers
targeted on religious grounds.”
Lambda Legal senior attorney
Sasha Buchert also weighed in with
warnings that the rule “effectively
allows almost any federal contractor
to claim a right to fi re a person, deny
health benefi ts or take other forms of
discriminatory action for marrying
a same-sex partner or coming out
as transgender, or who the employer
or would-be employer discovers is
transgender, for living in accordance
with their gender identity.”
Lindsey Kaley, staff attorney for
the ACLU’s Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Liberty Center, also slammed the
administration after the fi nal rule
was issued.
“This rule is the latest chapter in
the Trump administration’s yearslong
story of aggressively targeting
LGBTQ people for discrimination,”
Kaley said in a written statement.
“Federal contactors should be clear
— religion is not a license to discriminate.
This rule does not override
decades of court precedent on
what constitutes a religious corporation
or otherwise give contractors
permission to violate existing
federal law.”
Kaley added, “We are urging the
Biden administration to act swiftly
to reverse this rule and others
that have undermined our nation’s
civil rights laws. If the Biden administration
fails to act, the ACLU
is looking into legal options that
would ensure LGBTQ people and
others are protected from discrimination.”
While Biden is widely expected
to take steps to curtail the damage
imposed by the Trump administration,
it is not immediately clear
how much he could counteract the
latest rule — and how long that
process might take to clear bureaucratic
hurdles.
Smell gas,
act fast.
If you smell gas, leave the area
immediately and call 911 or
1-800-75-CONED (26633).
For more gas safety tips, visit
conEd.com/GasSafetyTips
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