Earlier today, the Coalition Against Religious Discrimination (CARD), which AU Chairs, sent letters to all 13 faith-based partnership offices within federal departments and agencies requesting information on how each agency handles the issue of hiring discrimination by religious organizations receiving federal grants and contracts. Obama Administration officials have repeatedly emphasized that determinations about whether religious groups may discriminate on the basis of religion with federal funds are made on a “case-by-case” basis, without defining what standards (if any) are actually used when these cases arise.

CARD represents dozens of religious, civil rights, labor, secular, and women’s organizations working to fight against the Faith-Based Initiative and ongoing federally funded employment discrimination. In a campaign speech in 2008, President Obama stated, “If you get a federal grant, you can’t use that grant money to proselytize to the people you help and you can’t discriminate against them – or against the people you hire – on the basis of their religion. Unfortunately the Bush Faith-Based Initiative policies remain in place and the current Administration has given no clear explanation as to how these sorts of cases are being handled. The current letters are aimed at answering that question by determining whether a concrete process and standard exists, and establishing transparency within the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

The letters were sent to the directors of faith-based offices within the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Labor, Health and Human Services, Justice, Housing and Urban Development, Education, Veterans Affairs, and Homeland Security, in addition to the Environmental Protection Agency, the Small Business Administration, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the Corporation for National and Community Service.

Each letter seeks responses to a number of questions, including:

1. What is the process for how your agency begins the “case-by-case review of an organization that seeks to discriminate on the basis of religion with federal funds?
2. Is there a process for a person who suspects federally funded religious discrimination is taking place to report a potential violation?
3. If there have, in fact, been cases forwarded from your agency for review, (a) how many have there been; (b) what were the facts of those cases; and (c) what was the decision reached in each case?

You can see the letter sent to the Department of Justice here. Join us in fighting religious discrimination by clicking here and asking President Obama to end federally funded discrimination today.