1. Some thoughts from DOJ “Religious Liberty Summit,” presided over by the AG and DAG:
2. The themes, panelists, and speakers are predominantly drawn from Christian right organizations, ideas, and legal battles, affirmed at the highest level of the government as the chief religious liberty concerns.
3. The AG delivered a speech that was at once affirming of religious right ideology on religious freedom, and laudatory of the president for recognizing these ideas and acting on them.
4. Sessions was described here by Asst AG for Office of Legal Policy Beth Williams (who is responsible for shepherding Kavanaugh nomination) as a man of deep personal faith whose “bravery and vision brought us here this morning.”
5. Sessions, in turn, had nothing but praise for Trump. Said Americans have been concerned about “changing cultural climate” that dimishes religious freedom and “this unease among the American people is one reason why he was elected.”
6. Sessions credited Trump with leading the way towards DOJ’s religious liberty guidance, and today he announced a new “task force” within DOJ to fully implement it.
7. Make no mistake: this is a very particular view of religious freedom, one where Sessions described Masterpiece Cakeshop’s Jack Phillips (a panelist here today) experience as “ordeal” and that he was proud DOJ filed an amicus brief on his behalf.
8. Phillips is on a panel moderated by Kerri Kupec, who works at DOJ Public Affairs but used to work at Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented him in his case arguing that he should be able to deny services to a gay couple.
9. There is a Chance rabbi and a Sikh and 2 other Christians on the panel but no Muslims.
9* *That’s Chabad rabbi (thanks autocorrect)
10. This effort, though, is about more than cases like Phillips’ or Little Sisters of the Poor, which has been brought up many times today. These efforts are also aimed at granting religious exemptions to taxpayer funded contractors and grantees.
11. Who say that complying with certain requirements — say, an adoption agency having to place children with same sex couples—violate their conscience and would drive them out of business.
12. Also: vouchers. One panelist is Derrick Max, founder of Cornerstone School in SE DC, where 60% of kids go on vouchers, and where school provides a “Christ-centered education.”
13. Another panelist is tearfully sharing her story of becoming pregnant at 18 and deciding to put her baby up for adoption with Bethany Christian Services.
14. She says they told her “God loves you” and “I don’t know that would have happened at a secular adoption agency.”
15. A few more thoughts at the end of the day (got interrupted by other things before I finished the thread).
To understand what's happening here, you need to go back to the beginning of the administration.
To understand what's happening here, you need to go back to the beginning of the administration.
16. The draft executive order circulating in agencies -- although never implemented -- is a roadmap to the sweeping view of religious freedom Trump's base wanted him to put into place. thenation.com/article/leaked…
17. Instead, Trump signed a scaled-back executive order, but nonetheless gave the Attorney General broad authority to issue guidance for federal agencies to implement these ideas. thenation.com/article/religi…
18. AG Sessions outlined this in his 20 principles guidance issued last year, and it was widely denounced by civil liberties and civil rights advocates. washingtonpost.com/world/national…
19. DOJ made more moves to signal it was taking the side of religious right groups in litigation matters. As AG said today, he was proud to have filed an amicus brief in Masterpiece Cakeshop. The Religious Liberty Task Force, he said, is the "next step" to implement the guidance.
20. Sessions had spoken at the conference held by Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips' counsel, Alliance Defending Freedom, and DOJ has many other ties with ADF. thenation.com/article/the-ch…
21. AG Sessions made his views quite clear today, and what his own commitments are: 
22.
23. It's true that DOJ is prosecuting hate crimes cases involving religiously motivated animus, for example.
But DOJ did that before. That's it's job. That's what the law requires.
But DOJ did that before. That's it's job. That's what the law requires.
24. Creating a task force to ensure that religious peoples' views are accommodated in the workplace or in the face of generally applicable laws is an unprecedented expansion of what DOJ does.
25. In AG Sessions' clearly stated view, there is a "dangerous movement" that needs to be "confronted and defeated" because it is "challenging" and "eroding" other peoples' religious freedom.
26. Who might he be talking about?
He didn't say, explicitly, but the entire tenor of the event today was that conservative Christians' rights are infringed upon by LGBTQ rights, or access to contraception, etc.
He didn't say, explicitly, but the entire tenor of the event today was that conservative Christians' rights are infringed upon by LGBTQ rights, or access to contraception, etc.
27. Remember, when DOJ filed an amicus brief in Masterpiece Cakeshop, it was a sign that DOJ was aiming to elevate the religious rights of some over the civil rights claims of others. thenation.com/article/the-ch… Prescient comment from @theglipper
28. The end. For now.
Rabbi Jack Moline of @intrfthalliance says Sessions' speech yesterday was "the clearest statement of the administration’s radical redefinition of religious freedom by prefacing a single brand of religion over all the others."
30. Sessions went on FRC's radio show yesterday to promote the Religious Liberty Task Force: frc.org/wwlivewithtony…
