Progressive faith communities are increasingly leveraging religious freedom laws to protect civil liberties across the US
A defining image of resistance in Donald Trump’s second term is a pastor recoiling as he is shot with pepper balls outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility.
Religious activism has also played out in court, with interfaith organizers launching a flurry of lawsuits against Trump-era policies that they say violate their beliefs, from abortion access to sanctuary for undocumented immigrants. While social conservatives have actively used “religious liberty” to limit LGBTQ+ rights and contraceptive coverage – in high-profile cases that have reached the US supreme court – progressive faith communities are increasingly leveraging religious freedom laws to fight for racial and social justice causes, too.
