Washington, D.C. – Congressional Freethought Caucus Co-Chairs Jamie Raskin (MD-08) and Jared Huffman (CA-02) sent a letter to U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Scott Kupor expressing concerns regarding the Trump administration’s recent OPM guidance that inherently undermines church-state separation.
On July 16, 2025, OPM released guidance that encourages federal agencies to grant employees teleworking and flexible scheduling – but only in cases of religious accommodation. Then two weeks later, OPM released a second memo that explicitly reinforces the right of federal employees, regardless of their role, to convert others in the workplace to their religion.
In their letter to Director Kupor, the lawmakers oppose these egregious attempts to undermine religious freedom and demand that OPM clarify its new policies regarding the role of religion in federal agencies.
“We are writing to express our strong objections to the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM’s) latest assaults on the First Amendment. OPM’s recent guidance on “Reasonable Accommodations for Religious Purposes” and its memorandum “Protecting Religious Expression in the Federal Workplace” are affronts to the U.S. Constitution’s Establishment Clause, the core principle of separation of church and state, and the religious freedom of federal workers across the country,” the lawmakers wrote.
“Although OPM’s July 28 memo suggests that President Trump will ‘vigorously enforce the historic and robust protections for religious liberty enshrined in Federal law,’ the memo lays the foundation for the opposite effect,” the lawmakers continued. “It ignores the very existence of the Establishment Clause, which prohibits officials from imposing their religious beliefs on their colleagues or members of the public seeking government services. It will give religious zealots free rein to proselytize up to the point of infringement on the rights and beliefs of their colleagues and members of the public who may hold different beliefs.”
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