DOJ refers MLB Bible verse case to EEOC, warns league over 'double standard' on religious expression

The same day CatholicVote formally asked for a federal probe into the matter, the Department of Justice warned Major League Baseball (MLB) that it may have violated federal civil rights law by threatening to discipline San Francisco Giants pitchers who wrote Bible verses on their Pride Night caps.

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon sent a letter to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred June 18 referring the matter to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for investigation.

"Swing and a miss!" Dhillon wrote on X. "Major League Baseball encouraged players to wear 'Black Lives Matter' on their uniforms but reportedly threatened Christians who write Bible verses on their hats. [The EEOC] will investigate whether this amounts to religious discrimination."

Also on June 18, CatholicVote President and CEO Kelsey Reinhardt formally requested that the EEOC investigate whether MLB has engaged in religious discrimination against Christian players who express their beliefs about Pride Month celebrations, as Zeale News reported.

"I write on behalf of CatholicVote to request that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigate whether Major League Baseball, its clubs, or related employing entities have engaged in unlawful religious discrimination, retaliation, failure to accommodate, or other violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 against Christian players who have sought to freely, peacefully, and respectfully express their sincerely held religious beliefs in response to Pride Month celebrations," Reinhardt wrote in a letter to EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas.

In Dhillon’s letter to Manfred, she also cited Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of religion and requires them to "reasonably accommodate an employee's religious observance" unless doing so would impose undue hardship on the business.

Dhillon wrote that MLB's warning to the three Giants players — who inscribed Bible verse references on their rainbow-colored Pride Night caps — may constitute an unlawful burden on employees with religious objections to serving as "the League's vehicle for pro-Pride messages."

She took direct aim at MLB's defense that its warning was content-neutral. "MLB has asserted that its warning to the Giants players 'had absolutely nothing to do with the content of the message' and that it merely is enforcing a policy that prohibits writing on uniforms," Dhillon wrote. "Yet, MLB has allowed players to wear uniform patches reading 'Black Lives Matter.'"

"This double standard — under which players may not inscribe Bible verses on hats for one game only but may wear 'Black Lives Matter' patches for one game only — calls MLB's true motives into question and raises serious concerns about MLB's compliance with Title VII," she wrote, citing the Supreme Court's ruling in EEOC v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores (2015) and the principle that employers may not use facially neutral policies as "a pretext for discrimination."

The letter was copied to Lucas.

Reinhardt has previously said the MLB’s warning against the pitchers shows that anti-Christian bigotry extends beyond individual teams.

"Now we know: these persons exist in the front office of the MLB itself," Reinhardt wrote on X June 17. "Religious freedom is not optional. We're ready to fight again."