From Bibles to prayer groups: What Trump's new religion memo for federal workers means

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President Donald Trump is again making sure his supporters know he is doing his part to bring ”religion back to our country.”

Most recently, his administration issued a memo in late July outlining to federal employees the types of religious expression allowed in the workplace. Bibles on desks. Groups joining together for prayer. An employee engaging with “another in polite discussion of why his faith is correct and why the non-adherent should re-think his religious beliefs.”

To many, it had overtly Christian-centric language, raising concerns about the rights of other religious groups. But supporters say the memo reinforces existing policies for federal workers, including similar guidance during the Clinton administration. 

The memo, which Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor issued to all federal agencies, is “very much in line” with Trump’s earlier actions on religious liberty, according to University of Houston law professor James Nelson.  

On the campaign trail and elsewhere, Trump has often told religious audiences he would bring religion back and since his second term began he has highlighted efforts that appeal to his conservative Christian supporters.

Trump issued an executive order calling for federal agencies to assist in “Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias” in February, which was followed by the establishment of the White House Faith Office and the Religious Liberty Commission. In the commission's first public meeting in June, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said religious liberty had “come under attack” in the country and vowed to protect religious freedom from “emerging threats.”  

A spokesperson for the Office of Personnel Management said the July 28 memo “reiterates existing policy” but updates it in light of U.S. Supreme Court decisions that have upheld religious liberty. It now references, for example, a 2023 ruling in favor of a Christian U.S. Postal Service worker who objected to working Sundays.  

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Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal organization, called the new memo a “critical step in restoring a workplace culture that respects and promotes religious freedom for every American.”  

“No American should have to check their faith at the door when they walk into the workplace,” said the organization’s legal counsel, Michael Ross. 

But experts, including Nelson, said the memo is less attentive to the potential for religious coercion and harassment in the workplace than previous guidance.

What the memo says

The five-page memo starts by describing Trump as a champion of religious liberty and goes on to say that the First Amendment, federal statutes and Supreme Court rulings protect federal employees’ rights to religious expression in the workplace.  

It then describes acceptable forms of religious expression by individual workers and groups of federal workers, including in conversations between federal employees, in interactions with the public and through expressions in areas open to the public.  

The examples of acceptable forms of religious expression the memo cites are from Christian and Jewish traditions. They include:

• “An employee may keep a Bible on her desk and may read it during breaks. Similarly, an employee may keep rosary beads or tefillin on her desk. During breaks, she may use such items to pray.” 

• “A group of employees may form a prayer group and gather for prayer or study of scripture or holy books at the office while not on duty hours.” 

• “On a bulletin board meant for personal announcements, a supervisor may post a handwritten note inviting each of his employees to attend an Easter service at his church.” 

• “A park ranger leading a tour through a national park may join her tour group in prayer.” 

• “A receptionist in a doctor’s office at a VA Medical Center may pray with a coworker in the patients’ waiting area.” 

It also says employees may “engage another in polite discussion of why his faith is correct and why the non-adherent should re-think his religious beliefs.” It notes, however, that the religious employee should honor any request to end such discussion.  

Trump administration praised Clinton-era guidance on religious expression

But these aren’t new policies. 

Former President Bill Clinton’s administration issued similar guidance in 1997.  

Like the more recent memo, the Clinton-era guidance also permits “(engaging) another in a polite discussion of why his faith should be embraced” and says that if the speaker is not requested to stop, agencies “should not restrict or interfere with such speech.”  

“In a country where freedom of speech and religion are guaranteed, citizens should expect to be exposed to ideas with which they disagree,” the 1997 memo says.  

Trump’s first administration also issued a memo on religious liberty in 2017. It called for federal agencies to "ensure that they are following” the Clinton-era guidance and referred to it as a “useful” resource for private employers in accommodating religious expression.  

In other words, there’s “nothing new” about the guidance, Heritage Foundation senior legal fellow Thomas Jipping said.  

But he said the enforcement of laws protecting religious liberty have been inconsistent across presidential administrations. Jipping referenced a 2015 Supreme Court ruling in favor of religious nonprofits that objected to the contraception mandate in President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. 

In his view, the issue is not an oversaturation of religion in public life but rather some “very aggressive efforts” to remove it. Jipping applauded what he described as the Trump administration's corrective actions.

“Let’s face it – there's a lot of folks out there who want religious people to just shut up and go to church,” he said. “That’s never been, to quote a phrase, ‘the American way.’ That’s not freedom.” 

Others are more skeptical of the Trump administration’s actions.  

The most recent memo is “very tilted in the direction of recognizing rights of religious expression and very unconcerned or quiet about the problems that might create,” said George Washington University professor emeritus of law Ira Lupu.  

He contrasted it with the Clinton-era guidance, which he called “balanced and fair-minded" in its acknowledgment of both the religious rights of federal employees and the associated risk of religious harassment in the workplace.  

The memo says, for example, that federal agencies can’t refuse to hire Buddhists or “impose more onerous requirements” on Buddhist job applicants, that an employee can have a Koran on their desk and read it during breaks, that employees can wear religious apparel like crucifixes or hijabs, and that employers may not force a Jehovah’s Witness to take an oath that conflicts with their religious beliefs. 

Lupu noted that the new Trump administration memo does not mention Muslims, Buddhists or other minority religious groups. 

The Office of Personnel Management spokesperson, however, said the guidance is equally applicable to members of those and other faiths. When asked about the potential for religious coercion, the spokesperson said the memo "makes clear that declining such an invitation should not be a basis for discipline."

First Amendment brings 'real tension,' expert says

Nelson said he views a “real tension” between some of the memo's tenets.

It cites a 2015 Supreme Court ruling, for example, that found Title VII – a section of the 1964 Civil Rights Act that bans employment discrimination – gives religious practices “favored treatment” under the law.  But the memo then goes on to say employees should "be allowed to engage in private religious expression in work areas to the same extent that they may engage in nonreligious private expression."

“I do think that ... courts may need to deal with that in the years to come,” Nelson said.  

Though he acknowledged some people may raise concerns about the guidance, Princeton University law professor Robert George said he sees “no such tension or conflict” between the Establishment Clause, which bans the government from favoring religion over nonreligion and the right to free exercise of religion. 

The Supreme Court’s shift from "strict separationism" has, in his view, protected Americans' right to express their religious beliefs while also making clear that such expression cannot be presented as the viewpoint of the U.S. government or interfere with others' rights.

“So, just as government employees may freely advocate or display symbols of secular causes – think of rainbow buttons or banners, Black Lives Matter insignia and so forth – they may freely express their religious opinions and display religious symbols – subject, as the memo makes clear, to reasonable and viewpoint-neutral time, place and manner regulations,” George said.  

BrieAnna Frank is a First Amendment Reporting Fellow at Paste BN. Reach her at bjfrank@usatoday.com.

Paste BN's coverage of First Amendment issues is funded through a collaboration between the Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input.