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In November 2020, the EEOC proposed changes to its Compliance Manual on Religious Discrimination for the first time in 12 years. NWLC, Human Rights Campaign, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights filed a comment opposing the proposed update and asked the EEOC to withdraw it. The EEOC’s proposed update would prioritize religious rights over longstanding rights to be free from discrimination motivated or defended by reference to religion.
- Licensing discrimination in the name of religion, as the proposed revisions do, runs counter to decades of Title VII case law and the longstanding practices of the EEOC and jeopardizes the civil rights and economic security of women, people of color, LGBTQ workers, immigrant workers, workers of minority faiths or no faith, and those with multiple and intertwining identities.
- NWLC also joined a letter to the EEOC expressing concerns with the lack of transparency and inclusiveness in its process for developing the proposed updates to the guidance. Read that letter here.
- The proposed update is part of a broader effort by the Trump Administration, including a rule from the Department of Labor addressing federal contractors’ nondiscrimination obligations, to make it easier to use religion to undermine civil rights laws. Read our statement here.