Religion and the U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of Justice - 2018 Conversation with Eric Treene

Eric W. Treene is the Special Counsel for Religious Discrimination in the Office of the Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice. Before joining the Justice Department, Treene worked at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. Reach out to him at eric.treene@usdoj.gov. 

A History of the DOJ's Civil Rights Division: 

The Civil Rights Division established in 1957 in the midst of the growing civil rights movement. After the Civil War, segregation became law. Following the World Wars, there grew to be a growing racial consciousness. African American troops served in combat, FDR required that that military contractors did not discriminate. Troops coming home. Topeka v. Brown Board of Education SC view that segregation violated equal protection.

Civil Rights Acts of the 1960s: Barred discrimination by governments, individuals, businesses, labor unions, housing, public education. Applied to religion.

For the first 20 years, the Civil Rights Division focused on racial discrimination. Starting in 1980s, 1990s, and particularly after 9/11, the division's work has expanded to religion.

2000: Congress passed law to protect right to build houses of worship. You can’t discriminate against particular groups. If other assembly groups can meet in a zone, than a place of worship can be allowed. Employers must make a reasonable accommodation to employees’ religious needs.

Treene: U.S. law prohibits the establishment of religion. However, we do not take a laïcité approach as does France. The U.S. approach is pluralism i.e. public school students can gather before school for prayer, student-initiated. It’s a balance between free exercise and disestablishment.

Not having government funding has helped religion in the U.S. It has forced them to be creative and innovated. Treene mentioned a study of Philadelphia congregations demonstrating that churches with big endowments tend to go into decline because leadership becomes complacent. 

A question was raised about how the U.S. govt defines a religion. Treene said that the government will not judge what is religious or not. The criteria is evaluated on "sincerity of belief." How do you establish sincerity? Religion must include a comprehensive belief system. For example, you can't gain conscientious objections status for opposing one war, you must have an overarching position against participation in war.