The Justice Department released a memo Thursday directing all federal agencies to institutionalize the Supreme Court’s precedents and protect all aspects of religious freedom, including parental rights, amid activist efforts to force LGBTQ+ activism in schools. “Religious liberty is not merely a right to personal religious beliefs or even to worship in a particular place,” states the memo, provided early to the Daily Signal. “It also encompasses religious observance and practice as displayed in a person’s daily life. Except in the narrowest circumstances, no one should be forced to choose between living out his or her faith and complying with the law.” The memo, which revises and expands upon the Religious Liberty Guidelines published in 2017 under President Donald Trump’s first administration, lays out 21 principles that federal agencies must follow on religious freedom. The principles include preventing government from targeting religious conduct or speech, excluding religious groups from grants or contracts due to their faith, and interfering with the autonomy of religious organizations. They also require government to allow religious employers to hire staff “whose beliefs and conduct are consistent with the employers’ religious precepts.” These principles carry implications for religious schools, foster care agencies, and other charities that seek to participate in American society on a level playing field with secular groups. The Parental Rights Section The memo includes a new section that states, “Government may not interfere with parental rights to direct the religious upbringing of their children.” “Parents have the right to direct the religious upbringing and education of their children,” the memo explains. “This right extends beyond a mere right to teach religion in the confines of one’s home and encompasses the choices parents make for their children outside the home. Government policies that substantially interfere with the religious development of children violate this right.” “Government may not choose to condition the availability of public benefits, such as public schooling, upon parents’ willingness to surrender their religious freedom,” the section concludes. Parental Rights Battles LGBTQ+ activism, particularly in schools, has triggered parental rights legal battles across the country. While activists claim that schools should champion LGBTQ+ issues in order to prevent bullying and discrimination, parents of many faiths and no faith oppose parts of the LGBTQ+ agenda, particularly transgender ideology, and object to schools teaching impressionable young children that they may change their sex to match a different gender identity. A Maryland school district mandated that schools use LGBTQ+ books and declined to allow parents to opt their kids out of the instruction. Parents of various faith backgrounds—Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim—sued, seeking a temporary injunction to secure an opt-out. Lower courts refused to grant the injunction, but the Supreme Court reversed. “Today, we hold that the parents have shown that they are entitled to a preliminary injunction,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the 6-3 majority opinion. “A government burdens the religious exercise of parents when it requires them to submit their children to instruction that poses ‘a very real threat of undermining’ the religious beliefs and practices that the parents wish to instill.” The Justice Department memo cites this opinion, Mahmoud v. Taylor. The new guidelines also state that the government may not deny religious schools the right to participate in a voucher or similar program because of their religious teachings. Other Key Religious Freedom Cases The memo cites Kennedy v. Bremerton School District (2022), in which the Supreme Court ruled that coach Joe Kennedy did not violate the First Amendment’s clause prohibiting the establishment of religion by praying on a public high school football field. This case effectively buried the secularizing test in Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971). The Justice Department notes that while the establishment clause “forbids the government from coercing religious observance” and discrimination against or between religious groups, it “does not compel the government to purge from public life anything an objective observer may think endorses religion.” The memo notes that America’s Founders often promoted religion in general. The memo also cites Fulton v. Philadelphia (2021), in which the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Philadelphia had violated the First Amendment by canceling its foster care contract with Catholic Social Services due to the Catholic agency’s refusal to place foster children with same-sex couples. The Justice Department also highlights Groff v. DeJoy (2023), in which the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the rights of a Christian postal worker who sought an exemption from working on Sundays. The court clarified that employers must honor religious-freedom requests unless they pose a “substantial” burden to employers under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Rather than merely responding after a violation occurs, the memo directs agencies to proactively consider religious-liberty impacts when drafting regulations, enforcing federal law, and administering government programs, according to a Justice Department press release.