A federal judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit filed by an interfaith coalition that had challenged the composition of President Donald Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission, rejecting arguments that its membership was too heavily weighted toward conservative Christianity.
Judge John P. Cronan ruled that while federal law does require advisory commissions to reflect a balance of viewpoints, it does not spell out exactly how that balance must be achieved. The New York-based judge determined that Trump holds considerable discretion when it comes to appointing commission members.
The legal challenge was brought by multiple plaintiffs, including the progressive Interfaith Alliance along with Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh organizations. The groups contended the commission was lopsided, pointing out that it was made up almost entirely of conservative Christians, with the exception of one Orthodox Jewish rabbi. The plaintiffs also noted that several commission members had publicly questioned the concept of church-state separation and voiced support for the notion of America as a Judeo-Christian nation.
Those concerns appeared to gain traction among critics when the commission released a draft report in June that pushed back against the widely held understanding of church-state separation, calling instead for “bridges” between the two institutions.
However, Judge Cronan concluded that the lawsuit, which sought a commission with greater ideological and religious diversity, did not satisfy the legal standards required for it to proceed.
In his ruling, Cronan also noted that the commission does reflect diversity in certain respects, including a mix of clergy members and laypeople. He further pointed out that the commission includes “adherents of at least five different religions,” referencing the lone Jewish member alongside representatives of various Christian denominations and backgrounds.
The Interfaith Alliance had argued that the commission lacked proper balance because its members held the view that “the law should protect the exercise of religious beliefs over the civil rights of minority groups.” Cronan pushed back on that argument, writing that because Trump’s executive order establishing the commission explicitly rejected the framing of “religious liberty as inconsistent with civil rights,” the president was not required to appoint anyone who disagreed with that foundational premise.
The Interfaith Alliance has been an outspoken critic of the commission, arguing that its draft report failed to adequately address significant concerns such as anti-Muslim violence and that its policy positions favor certain religious groups at the expense of others.
