DOJ Report: Anti-Christian Bias Was Real, Systematic, and Pervasive Under Biden
For years, the ACLJ has been sounding the alarm. We have stood in courtrooms, filed federal complaints, sent demand letters, and represented thousands of Christians facing hostility from their own government. Time and again, naysayers claimed we were exaggerating. That there was no systematic bias. That Christians in America had nothing to worry about. Today, that argument is over.
The Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias – established by President Trump’s Executive Order 14202 and led by the Department of Justice – has released its landmark 2026 report. It is a comprehensive, government-confirmed account of what the ACLJ has been fighting against for decades. The findings are sweeping, sobering, and, for those of us who have been on the front lines of these cases, entirely unsurprising.
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This report is a factual accounting – agency by agency, case by case, policy by policy – of how the Biden Administration weaponized the power of the federal government against people of faith. And the ACLJ’s own cases and advocacy are woven throughout its pages.
Our Victory at Smithsonian: When Museum Told Christian Students First Amendment “Doesn’t Apply Here”
One of the most compelling case studies in the entire report involves clients the ACLJ represented directly – and a victory we are proud to have won for them. As the report found, students from two separate groups “were punished for wearing religious, pro-life attire at federal museums.”
In January 2023, a group of Catholic students, parents, and chaperones from Our Lady of the Rosary Church and School in South Carolina came to Washington, D.C., for the annual March for Life. They wore matching blue hats inscribed with the words “Rosary Pro-Life” – a visible expression of their sincerely held religious belief that unborn babies are created in the image of God and deserve protection. After the march, they visited the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.
What happened next was a stunning act of government-sanctioned religious discrimination. Security personnel demanded the students remove their hats just to enter the building. Once inside, guards confronted them again – using expletives to describe the pro-life students, several of whom were minors. One guard told them that their hats were political statements that were not promoting equality. When the students pointed out that other visitors were wearing pride masks and beanies without interference, the guard told them the museum was a “neutral zone” and that the First Amendment “does not apply here.”
Our other clients, also discussed in the report, went to the National Archives on the same day. Ironically, they were there to see the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment that it displays. Guards there, too, said that pro-life clothing was “offensive” or would “disturb the peace.”
The ACLJ filed a federal lawsuit against the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and the National Archives on behalf of these Christian families in Kristi L. v. National Air & Space Museum and Tamara R. v. National Archives. The case against the Smithsonian concluded with one of the largest reported settlements against the federal government in a First Amendment case, and also included a private director-led tour of the museum, personal apologies to our clients, and the public release of the Smithsonian’s own “after action” report on the incident. The Smithsonian also agreed to formally reiterate its non-discrimination policy to all security officers at every Smithsonian museum and the National Zoo. Likewise, the National Archives entered into a major settlement that represented a financial reckoning and expressed regret for what happened.
Fighting for Seniors: Our Letter to DOJ
The ACLJ’s involvement in this historic Task Force report goes well beyond our courtroom victories. The ACLJ sent a letter to the Department of Justice in July 2024, presenting evidence of a troubling pattern we have witnessed firsthand: a growing wave of religious discrimination against senior citizens in federally regulated housing.
Across the country, elderly Christians living in apartment complexes and senior living facilities have been told they cannot host Bible studies in common rooms, cannot display religious decorations outside their doors, and cannot hold prayer gatherings.
The ACLJ’s letter to HUD and DOJ, formally included as an exhibit in the official Task Force report, makes the legal case clearly: The Fair Housing Act prohibits exactly this kind of differential treatment. We have enforced that principle in case after case, often reaching swift resolutions once management understands the law – but we cannot keep solving these problems one nursing home at a time. That is why we called on the federal government to issue formal guidance for senior living facilities nationwide.
Unsurprisingly, the Biden DOJ did nothing in response to our letter. But this report now finds: “Considered in conjunction with its other activities, the Biden Administration contributed to the feeling of exclusion of religious entities and individuals from federal programs when it decided not to update these federal regulations to reflect the Supreme Court’s rulings protecting religious freedom.”
Standing for Conscience Rights: We Defended Christian Nurse Forced To Participate in an Abortion
The Task Force report also addresses one of the ACLJ’s defining pro-life conscience cases – one that the ACLJ fought for years to see vindicated.
A Christian nurse at the University of Vermont Medical Center was coerced into participating in an elective abortion, despite clearly expressing her sincere religious objections. The ACLJ represented her. We filed the underlying complaint with HHS’s Office for Civil Rights and filed parallel charges before the EEOC on her behalf. You can read the full account of her harrowing story and our initial HHS victory here.
After years of ACLJ advocacy, the Trump Administration’s DOJ filed a federal lawsuit against the University of Vermont Medical Center – the first time the federal government had ever taken such action to enforce healthcare conscience protections. The ACLJ called it exactly what it was: a landmark victory.
But the report details how just two weeks after the Biden Administration took office, the hospital, through its legal counsel, immediately went to work to discredit and shut down the lawsuit. The report includes a letter sent from hospital counsel to Biden DOJ political appointees, loaded with politically divisive language and attacking the ACLJ and ACLJ Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow’s personal representation of President Trump in his private capacity, in order to get the political attention of the Biden DOJ and sweep the legal abuses and violations of our client’s rights under the rug.
The Biden Administration quickly complied, immediately began dismantling that protection, and dropped the DOJ lawsuit entirely, leaving our client and thousands of other Christian medical professionals without the federal remedy the law required. That betrayal of conscience rights is now part of the official record of Biden-era anti-Christian bias.
The report finds: “The Biden DOJ rapidly worked to change course, viewing the issue as a day-one priority.” It emphasized: “This case is emblematic of the Biden Administration’s approach to conscience enforcement: When the scope of federal protections was legally contested, the Administration generally chose the interpretation least protective of religious objectors[.]”
We will not let it be forgotten.
Report Is Just Tip of the Iceberg
The Task Force report validates virtually every area of concern we have raised over years of legal advocacy. The scope of the confirmed findings is staggering.
It found that the Biden FBI investigated, monitored, tracked, and scrutinized traditional Catholics – treating those who attended the Traditional Latin Mass and held orthodox views on life as potential domestic terrorists. Praying the Rosary was enough to put you on an FBI list. The ACLJ fought this relentlessly. We filed a FOIA lawsuit against the FBI, uncovering over 1,200 pages of documents related to the targeting of Christians.
It found that the Biden Administration denied Christians and faith-based organizations equal access to FEMA disaster assistance, SBA relief programs, security grants, and federal food programs – in some cases, solely because they were Christian. The ACLJ has fought for equal treatment of faith-based organizations in federal relief programs and has submitted a FOIA in a shocking case where at least 20 homes were skipped for FEMA assistance following Hurricane Helene because they displayed support for President Trump.
The 2026 Task Force Report is a historical reckoning. It is a formal, government-issued acknowledgment that for four years, the power of the United States federal government was systematically turned against its own Christian citizens. The ACLJ has been fighting these battles one by one, case by case, client by client. This report shows we have been right all along.
The First Amendment applies everywhere. Even at the Smithsonian, in a senior living facility, or at a hospital. We proved it. And we’ll keep proving it – every single day.
LifeNews Note: Jordan Sekulow is the Executive Director of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ)
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