Trump plans new school prayer rules for Religious Freedom Day. What’s the rule now?

President Donald Trump announced new guidance on prayer in public schools Thursday afternoon.

The announcement comes as the White House recognizes National Religious Freedom Day, which Trump said honors the “foundational link between freedom and faith in our country.”

White House officials told NPR that there will be no change to existing law or regulations. Trump teased the guidance at a Jan. 3 rally at a Florida megachurch, saying that he and Attorney General Bill Barr are “doing a big action.”

“We will not allow faithful Americans to be bullied by the hard left,” he said, according to Time and Politico.

You can watch Trump’s announcement on the new guidance live on C-Span.

What’s allowed now?

Students are allowed to pray on their own, but the Supreme Court has ruled that public schools cannot initiate prayer or promote religious events or symbols.

In 2017, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against a Louisiana school district saying the district broadcast Christian prayers over the PA system every morning and included religious messages and prayer in other events, including pep rallies and graduation ceremonies.

A federal judge ordered the school district to end the practice by consent decree in 2018.

Another lawsuit filed in November by atheist students and their families claims school staff in Tennessee have made prayer a part of school assemblies and athletic events. The lawsuit said Bible verses are displayed in the school, and a Christian association has visited to distribute Bibles during class.

One student plaintiff told the ACLU the situation is “very awkward and uncomfortable.”

“I respect other people’s religion, and I would like it if everyone else would respect my beliefs,” the student said.

Madalyn Murray O’Hair, founder of the American Atheists organization, filed a lawsuit in 1960 over the Baltimore public school system forcing her son to recite prayers and read from the Bible, which eventually lead to the Supreme Court decision. Nick Fish, the organization’s current president, told McClatchy News there is nothing Trump can do to change that fact.

“The only thing President Trump and his sycophants care about is reinforcing Christian supremacy,” Fish said. “They have shown time and time again that they don’t care at all about equality under the law.”

Trump’s announcement comes a little less than a month after an editorial in the publication Christianity Today called for Trump’s removal from office. According to the editorial, the issue over whether the president should be removed is “not a matter or partisan loyalties but loyalty to the Creator of the Ten Commandments.”

“None of the president’s positives can balance the moral and political danger we face under a leader of such grossly immoral character,” the editorial said.

Trump responded via Twitter, saying the magazine would “rather have a Radical Left nonbeliever” than him as president.

“No President has done more for the Evangelical community, and it’s not even close,” he tweeted.

Changes go beyond prayer in schools

The president’s announcement comes as the White House announced nine federal agencies will release rules that it says ensures religious and non-religious organizations are treated equally.

One rule proposed by the Department of Education seeks to undo requirements set by the Obama administration that it calls “burdensome regulatory requirements.” According to the rule, public institutions could not use grants in a way that would “discriminate” against faith-based organizations.

“The Obama administration had issued rules in 2016 that said religious social service providers that use federal tax money must tell beneficiaries — the people who use their services — that alternative organizations could provide the same services; the religious groups would then need to provide a referral to go somewhere else,” according to Buzzfeed News. “For example, a Christian drug treatment center would need to let Jewish patients know about other facilities that can help them.”

White House Domestic Policy Council Director Joe Grogan told reporters on a call Thursday that Trump’s announcement “will remove discriminatory regulatory burdens that the Obama administration placed on religious organizations that received federal funding.”

“President Trump is committed to making sure that people of faith, particularly children, are not subjected to illegal punishment or pressure for exercising their constitutionally protected rights,” Grogan said.

The new rule would also streamline the process of complaints against a school district that denies someone’s right to prayer. Under the new guidance, if a state Department of Education is aware of a prayer-related lawsuit it must report it to the U.S. Department of Education.

“The Department’s efforts will level the playing field between religious and non-religious organizations competing for federal grants, as well as protect First Amendment freedoms on campus and the religious liberty of faith-based institutions,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.

Members of the Congressional Freethought Caucus slammed the proposed rules in a statement Thursday, calling Trump’s guidance the “latest attack on our Constitution.”

Democratic Reps. Jared Huffman and Jamie Raskin said in a joint statement that the regulations proposed by the various agencies “seek to muddy the clear and distinct separation of church and state.”

“In America, people have the right to make decisions about their own religious practices,” the lawmakers said in a statement issued to McClatchy. “The Congressional Freethought Caucus is resolutely opposed to President Trump’s latest affront to the Constitution.”

This story was originally published January 16, 2020 at 10:36 AM.