The State of Religious Liberty in the United States

Annual Report of the USCCB’s Committee for Religious Liberty:

The Annual Report summarizes developments in religious liberty at the federal or national level in the United States in 2024. In the final section, it identifies five areas of critical concern—issues where there are both threats and opportunities—for religious liberty in the coming year, with recommended actions that readers can take in response to each issue.

Law & Policy

As was the case in the 2023–2024 Annual Report, because control of the two chambers of Congress was divided, most bills that threatened religious liberty—that is to say, immunity from coercion in religious matters—did not move forward. Legislation aiming to increase access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) was introduced in 2024. The most significant threats to religious liberty at the federal level came in the form of finalized regulations by federal agencies, such as the Section 1557 rule, which implements the nondiscrimination provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). These rules heavily focused on imposing requirements regarding abortion, sexual orientation, and gender identity. The Supreme Court did not decide any cases in 2024 that dealt primarily with a question of religious liberty. However, rights of conscience played an unexpectedly key role in two decisions about abortion: Moyle v. United States and FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine. In Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, the Court limited the power of federal agencies to interpret laws passed by Congress, signaling a major change in how regulations and religious liberty will intersect in the future. The Court heard arguments in U.S. v. Skrmetti regarding whether the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause bars states from prohibiting so-called gender transition procedures for minors.

Politics & Culture

In 2024, there were several significant developments in politics and culture. Two issues that were prominent in the 2024 election have implications for religious liberty: immigration and gender identity. Immigration policy becomes a religious liberty problem when religious charities and social services are singled out for special hostility. Gender identity rules have led to religious liberty conflicts, but following the election, some Democrats seemed to signal a desire to moderate on this issue. The opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympics included a display that mocked Catholics, while the governor of Michigan appeared in a social media video in which she gave a tortilla chip to a podcast host in a manner that lewdly imitated a priest giving communion at Mass. The Committee for Religious Liberty hosted a symposium on the theme of Religious Liberty in a Culture of Self-Invention. Religious charities serving newcomers found themselves the targets of lawfare, largely motivated by misinformation and partisan rhetoric related to the U.S.–Mexico border, while shocking reports of antisemitic incidents emerged from the campus protests that began following the October 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel.

The five areas of critical concern—threats and opportunities—for religious liberty are:

·        the targeting of faith-based immigration services

·        the persistence of elevated levels of antisemitic incidents

·        IVF mandates, which represent a significant threat to religious freedom, while the national discussion of IVF represents an opportunity for Catholics to share Church teaching and advocate for human dignity

·        the scaling back of gender ideology in law

·        parental choice in education, one of the longest-running areas of concern for American Catholics

Read the full report.