The Department of Justice (DOJ) released a new report on April 30 detailing former President Joe Biden’s administration’s allegations of anti-Christian bias and how President Donald Trump’s administration is working to reverse those policies.
“When Christian beliefs about morality and human nature collide with the Biden administration’s views, the religious right often suffers,” the executive summary said.
“The Biden administration generally tolerates privately held religious beliefs, but enthusiastically takes action to limit the ability of Christians to practice their faith,” the report said. “It affected matters of deep personal importance to almost every American: life, family, marriage, and self-identity.”
The report, titled “Elimination of anti-Christian bias within the federal government,It was issued by the Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias, which Trump established in February 2025.
The review lists Biden-era regulations related to abortion, contraception, gender and human sexuality, among other issues, which often pit the government against religious institutions such as the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).
Similar issues also exist in “state and local governments and the private sector”, which had “limited intervention” or “tacit support” from the Biden administration.
It also alleges government “weaponization” against Christians, including concerns about the investigation of “radical traditionalist Catholics” by the FBI’s Richmond office, as well as criminal convictions of pro-life protesters under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Access (FACE) Act.
The Trump administration has worked to rescind those rules and end those practices, the report said. It also said that the administration has sought to include faith in public life.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanch, chairman of the Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias, said in a statement, “No American should have to live in fear that the federal government will punish them for their faith.”
“As our reporting shows, the Biden administration’s actions devastated the lives of many Christian Americans,” he said. “That catastrophe ended with President Trump. The Justice Department will continue to expose bad actors who targeted Christians and work tirelessly to restore religious freedom for all Americans.”
Biden-era rules
A key issue noted in the DOJ report is the Biden administration’s reading of the 2019 Supreme Court decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, which found that the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
The report said the Trump administration previously issued a memo on Bostock directing the DOJ to interpret that decision without violating religious freedom.
Yet the Biden administration rescinded that memo and issued a new memo saying the report “condemns gender-based discrimination in federally funded schools and sports.”
It says, “The Biden DOJ also treated religious exemption requests as conduct harmful to regulation and advanced its erroneous Bostock interpretation in amicus briefs, even though federal courts have repeatedly rejected it.”
In one example, the report states that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has linked this interpretation of Bostock to the National School Lunch Program. Initially, religious freedom objections were considered on a case-by-case basis, but the administration eventually issued a memorandum acknowledging the religious exemption.
It states, “The policy left Christian schools and ministries with a stark choice: If they wanted to feed the hungry using these programs, they would have to abandon the Bible’s teachings on sex and marriage.”
It says, “As a result, the Biden USDA excluded many Christians from programs.” “For example, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis decided to remove all of its parochial schools from the National School Lunch Program, even after the Biden USDA released its memo acknowledging Title IX’s religious exemptions.”
This interpretation was also applied to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) regulations on what the Biden administration called “gender-affirming care for minors.” The report stated that “many providers interpreted (it) as a requirement with limited or no religious exemptions.” Similar to the lunch program, religious exemptions were looked at on a case-by-case basis.
Similar rules were enforced in workplaces through the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
Other regulations reduced conscience protections related to abortion and contraception. For example, it notes that HHS and DOJ withdrew a notice of violation against the University of Vermont Medical Center because it “forced a Christian nurse to participate in an abortion despite her religious objections.”
In other instances, HHS issued guidance that requires hospitals, including Catholic hospitals, to offer abortion in certain circumstances under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act. The Biden administration also interpreted the Pregnant Worker Fairness Act to force employers to accommodate an employee’s abortion, “even if doing so would conflict with the employer’s religious rights,” the report said.
“The findings presented by the task force raise serious concerns about whether certain Biden-era policies and practices were administered in a manner consistent with the Constitution and applicable federal law,” the report said.
It says, “These concerns impact the core American commitments – religious freedom, equal treatment and the rule of law – that protect the faith and conscience of all Americans.”
