Diverse Faith Leaders, Groups File Motion to Block Administration’s So-Called “Religious Liberty Commission”

New York – A coalition of diverse faith leaders and organizations is asking a federal court to pause the publication of a report to be issued by the Trump-Vance administration’s so-called Religious Liberty Commission, pointing to violations of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) and the unbalanced and biased viewpoints assembled for the panel. The coalition is also asking the court to order the Commission to comply with FACA’s transparency requirements by publishing documents regarding the Committee’s proceedings.

The new filing comes in a lawsuit, Interfaith Alliance, et al. v. Trump, et al., filed by Democracy Forward and Americans United for Separation of Church and State last month on behalf of the Interfaith Alliance, Muslims For Progressive Values, Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and Hindus For Human Rights.

“The government has no right to pick and choose which religious beliefs to promote, and which to marginalize – and a commission that doesn’t reflect or respect true religious liberty in our country has no right to issue a formal report on it,” said Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, President and CEO of Interfaith Alliance. “The Trump administration has consistently failed to uphold our country’s proud religious freedom tradition, and our lawsuit will hold them accountable. Let’s be clear: Americans are going to defend true religious liberty for all, with every legal tool available to us.”

“As Muslims we recognize too well what theocracy looks like and the harms of such a governing system. Sadly, there is much evidence of America slipping into a Christian theocracy with wars invoked in the name of Jesus, and the many legislations passed reflected a particular version of Christianity. The Religious Liberty Commission is just another forum in which this ideology is promoted, ” said Ani Zonneveld, President and Founder of Muslims for Progressive Values.

“As Sikh Americans, we see religious freedom as inclusive, rooted in equality, and respectful of all paths—not confined to a single viewpoint. Any effort that marginalizes diverse communities while privileging one tradition runs counter to constitutional principles and reality of faith in American life,” said Kiran Kaur Gill, Executive Director of the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

“As Hindu Americans, religious freedom is expansive and plural, not narrow or exclusionary. This commission sidelines entire communities while elevating one religious perspective. In effect, this administration is undermining the Constitution and erasing millions of Americans,” said Ria Chakrabarty, Senior Policy Director for Hindus for Human Rights.

The commission was established by Executive Order 14291 on May 1, 2025. Despite the guidelines set by law through FACA, the commission’s membership consists exclusively of Christians, except for one Orthodox Jewish Rabbi, all of whom collectively represent an ahistorical narrow perspective that America was founded as a “Judeo-Christian” nation and must be guided by biblical principles – which are themselves open to interpretation. No members of the commission represent other religions, such as Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, or Sikhism, or non-religious Americans, and the commission’s meetings have expressly adopted and promoted purportedly Judeo-Christian viewpoints, with members routinely expressing their views during meetings that the United States is a Judeo-Christian or Christian nation.

The legal challenge asks the court to declare that the commission was created and administered in violation of federal law, to require the disclosure of documents that should already be public, and to ensure that any recommendations produced by this body are clearly identified as coming from an unlawfully constituted commission. In today’s filing, the coalition is asking for the court to issue a preliminary injunction, ordering the commission to immediately release meeting transcripts and other documents required by law and to delay the publication of its biased report as the full case is considered by the court.

“The Religious Liberty Commission was never about protecting religious liberty; it was built to tear down church-state separation and favor a very specific brand of Christianity. Any report from this commission will only continue to encourage religious partisanship and divisiveness as we continue to see attacks on true religious freedom. The court should not allow the Religious Liberty Commission to rush to publish a prejudicial report until the court has ruled on the unlawful bias of the committee itself,” said Americans United President and CEO Rachel Laser.

“The Trump-Vance administration’s so-called Religious Liberty Commission is not about religious liberty at all. Instead, the commission is about pursuing a culture of Christian Nationalism that seeks to divide and isolate people across our nation. Democracy Forward is honored to work with our partners in this important effort to protect the American people and the best of our nation’s values from the administration’s ongoing assault on religious liberty and our foundational rights,”  said Ayesha Khan, Senior Legal Advisor for Democracy Forward.

Congress enacted FACA in 1972 to curb the executive branch’s reliance on secretive and biased advisory committees, and the law establishes strict requirements for the creation and conduct of committees that are intended to influence national policy. Every advisory committee must meet public transparency requirements, be in the public interest, be fairly balanced among competing points of view, and be structured to avoid inappropriate influence by special interests.

Interfaith Alliance et al. v.Trump et al, is before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and the legal team on this case includes Anna Deffebach, Robin Thurston, and Ayesha Khan from Democracy Forward and Jenny Samuels from Americans United.

Read today’s filing here and the earlier complaint here.