Liberal Groups Sue for Details on New HHS Religious Freedom Division

TOWN HALL ^ | July 19, 2018 | Lauretta Brown

[Morgana]

The Center for Reproductive Rights and the National Women's Law Center filed a lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Thursday after they received no response to a January Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for information about the new HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) Conscience and Religious Freedom division.

The groups are seeking information about how the new division operates, how it allocates resources, whether its decision-making is influenced by outside groups, and why it was needed in the first place.

When the division was first announced, HHS explained that it “has been established to restore federal enforcement of our nation’s laws that protect the fundamental and unalienable rights of conscience and religious freedom.”

OCR Director Roger Severino cited the past under-enforcement of federal conscience protection statutes, such as the Church, Coats-Snowe, and Weldon Amendments.

“These protections have been under-enforced in the past and that has led to certain consequences,” he said at the time.

“If you under enforce a statute you should not be surprised if entities start testing it,” he commented, adding that, for these sorts of complaints, courts have said there’s no private right of action, meaning the only recourse is to OCR.

Members of Congress later cited specific instances of discrimination that pointed to the need for such a division.

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Thanks Morgana.