Trump religious liberty panel releases draft report, opens public comment period

President Donald Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission released a 224-page draft report June 26 following a yearlong review of religious liberty in the U.S., outlining recommendations to strengthen protections for religious Americans across public life.

The draft — presented to Trump in the Oval Office the same day it was released — examines the role of religion in American history and warns that faith is “far too often” treated “not as a protected and valued contribution to public life, but as a problem or annoyance to be managed, restricted, or sidelined.”

The report argues that defending religious liberty requires more than responding after rights have been violated. 

“It requires cultivating a culture that understands why those rights exist in the first place,” the report said.

The DOJ said on its website that the draft report will remain open for public comment until July 12, giving Americans a chance to respond before the commission finalizes recommendations that could influence federal religious liberty policy.

The draft includes 12 recommendations aimed at increasing religious freedom, including directing the Department of Justice (DOJ) to issue guidance on the Establishment Clause, requiring federal agencies to distribute “Know Your Rights” materials, creating new reporting hotlines for religious liberty violations, and requiring officials who restrict religious expression to provide written explanations.

Other proposals include creating a DOJ task force to prioritize religious liberty litigation, combating antisemitism through enforcement and education, repealing the Johnson Amendment, streamlining religious accommodations in the military, restoring benefits for service members affected by prior vaccine policies, and ensuring faith-based groups have equal access to federal funding.

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At the White House presentation, Phil McGraw — a commission member, clinical psychologist, and TV personality — said he was struck by the number of Americans who testified that they had faced discrimination because of their faith. 

“What stuck out for me is how many Americans showed up saying that they were persecuted — in healthcare, military, education, different walks of life — for living their faith and standing up for their faith,” McGraw said.

The report’s release came the same day Trump addressed the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority Conference in Washington, D.C., where he accused the Biden administration of hostility toward Christians and other religious Americans.

“They turned a nation founded on freedom for believers into a place where Catholics were targeted by the FBI, where pro-life grandmothers were put in jail for praying and where members of our military were thrown out of the armed forces for their religious lives,” Trump said.

Trump established the commission by executive order in May 2025, directing it to produce a report on the foundations of religious liberty in America, current threats to religious freedom, and strategies to strengthen religious protections. 

The commission held seven public hearings and received input from more than 100 witnesses, according to a DOJ press release. The commission heard from parents who said school officials lied to them or withheld information about their children, children who said they were bullied because of their religious beliefs, and healthcare workers who said they were targeted for objecting to gender mutilation surgeries for minors. 

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Examples cited in the release included testimony from military service members also said they were fired because of COVID-19 vaccine mandates, Jewish Americans who alleged that they faced antisemitism, and nuns who described being targeted by New York officials.

The 12-member commission is chaired by Republican Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, an evangelical Christian. Dr. Ben Carson, a Seventh-day Adventist, serves as the board’s vice chair. Other members include evangelical leaders Paula White — who leads the White House Faith Office — and Franklin Graham, Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, Christian author Eric Metaxas, and attorneys Allyson Ho and Kelly Shackelford.

Catholic members include Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop emeritus of New York; Bishop Robert Barron of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota; and Ethics and Public Policy Center President Ryan Anderson. 

Carrie Prejean Boller, a Catholic, was originally named to the commission but removed in February after she argued at a hearing about riots on American college campuses that her Catholic faith does not require support for political Zionism and that criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza should not be automatically labeled antisemitism. The chairman of the hearing accused her of “hijacking” the meeting. Boller later called her removal an affront to religious freedom and said it was inconsistent with the commission’s stated mission.