ACLJ: Continuing To Protect the Rights of Religious Believers From Discrimination – From the Medical Profession to Our Public Schools

The work of the ACLJ does not just involve litigating cases in court—from the district court, through the court of appeals, to the Supreme Court itself. It does not just involve participating in the legislative process on the state and federal levels, submitting formal comments on federal regulations, and participating around the globe in international matters. It does not just involve legal and political analysis on Sekulow, which reaches millions of listeners nationwide.

A critical and longstanding area of the ACLJ’s work is assisting—quietly and behind the scenes—individuals who have been discriminated against based on their religious beliefs.  Legal help like this may not result in headline news—in fact, these matters are many times resolved confidentially—but they make a profound difference in the person’s life we were able to assist. And any time we help a religious believer who’s faced discrimination in the private workplace or the public forum, it makes a difference to the culture as a whole. (That is no exaggeration. If every believer chose to abandon his or her beliefs under threat by the government or their employer, what would be left of any religious culture?)

Recently, in addition to similar matters, we’ve been able to assist a nurse who was instructed not to talk about abortion in the workplace because it made some doctors feel uncomfortable, a pharmacist who was told that she had no legal right to opt out of filling prescriptions for abortifacient drugs, and another nurse who was ordered to participate in any and all medical procedures because she’s “just a nurse” and has no say.

Through the work of the ACLJ, each of these situations resulted in a pro-life medical person being able to keep their job. They were not reprimanded, disciplined, or fired for standing up for their pro-life beliefs. They can now fulfill their professional calling in life while continuing to give witness to the sanctity of human life in the workplace. And thanks to the support of our members, we assisted these individuals free of charge.

It is stunning how many hospitals, pharmacies, clinics, and governmental agencies think they can get away with threatening medical professionals because of their religious beliefs. In addition to Title VII, which requires that an employer accommodate the religious beliefs of employees, so long as doing so doesn’t create an undue burden on the employer, federal law provides many conscience protections for medical persons and entities. (In December 2020, we filed comments in response to proposed changes to the EEOC’s Compliance Manual on Religious Discrimination. Those comments include many examples of how the ACLJ has used Title VII to assist individuals in cases and through informational and demand letters.)

Pro-life medical professionals are only a few of the types of persons we’ve been able recently to assist. As it’s been doing since its inception, the ACLJ continues to assist students, families, churches, and more, when the government thinks it has a free hand to undermine the rights of religious believers. In these types of situations, if the ACLJ didn’t intervene, free speech would’ve been silenced and religious exercise suppressed.

The ACLJ remains prepared to assist those who face unlawful discrimination because of their religious beliefs. And resolving a matter on behalf of one of our clients can be achieved in any number of ways. While litigation is sometimes necessary to vindicate the rights of our clients, that’s not always the case. Time after time, we’ve been able to protect our clients’ interests through demand letters sent on the clients’ behalf to the offending individual or entity. Sometimes, our clients can resolve a matter by sharing an informational letter drafted and tailored to their situation. No matter which avenue is taken, the result is the same: ensuring that our clients’ legal rights are respected.

So long as religious discrimination continues to rear its ugly head in schools, workplaces, and the public forum, the ACLJ will be there to assist. Fighting for religious freedom is a founding principle of the ACLJ and is a commitment that inspires it to this day.