Acting Labor Secretary Patrick Pizzella didn’t let his temporary status stop him from advancing a key new policy guidance Aug. 14 — one that should redound very much to the benefit of religious liberty. Let’s hope the proposed new rule makes it all the way through the regulatory process.
Pizzella and his aides describe the proposed rule as “clarifying civil rights protections for religious organizations.” Technically, that’s true, but it’s a bit of an understatement. What it really does is re-expand protections that had been misguidedly narrowed by the Obama administration. The change would be substantive and important. It also would be more in line with the text and reasoning behind the First Amendment’s protections for the “free exercise” of religion.
