DOJ: Biden admin ‘penalized Christians who lived according to their beliefs’

The Biden administration targeted and harassed Christians in education, family, health care, small businesses and military service, according to a new report released Thursday by the Trump administration.

“The Biden Administration’s policies regularly clashed with a Christian worldview and burdened traditional religious practices,” the report states. “These conflicts frequently arose over abortion, gender ideology, and sexual orientation. Ultimately, the Biden Administration penalized Christians who lived in accordance with their beliefs.”

In February 2025, President Donald Trump established the Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias in the Federal Government with the explicit mission “to identify where religious discrimination may have informed the Biden Administration’s policies, practices, or decisions; and to take immediate steps to rectify weaponization of government and unlawful conduct affecting Christians.”

The Justice Department’s 200-page report, which includes another 300 pages of documents and evidence, concludes that “the Biden Administration’s actions devastated the lives of many Christian Americans,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who chaired the task force.

The document opens by laying out America’s Christian heritage and religious liberty: “Our Nation’s origin and system of government bear the imprint of a Christian worldview and ethic, even as its laws protect religious pluralism.”

The report’s overview of religion “demystifies” Christianity for many social “ideologues” who oppose Christian values and demonstrates the significance of sincerely held religious beliefs, First Liberty Senior Counsel Jeremy Dys told The Lion in an interview.

“My hope would be that people who are sort of ideologically captive to the progressive left would take a moment and not only appreciate the religious history that our country is beautifully full of, but also appreciate the sincere beliefs that millions of Americans possess that ought to be respected when it comes to religious liberty and the application of our laws,” he said.

Details of discrimination

The Justice Department outlines 14 key findings in the report, including that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service targeted people of faith. It also cites unequal application of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which severely punished pro-life Americans

Additionally, the Department of Education penalized Christian universities, and the Department of Health and Human Services ignored religious accommodation requests from nurses and doctors regarding abortion and transgender procedures, according to the report.

“In many instances, the Biden Administration made rhetorical overtures to religious protections, only to sideline those rights when they competed with the Biden Administration’s goals regarding sex, marriage, and abortion,” the report states. “The Biden Administration’s policies in these arenas often demonstrated that Christians were free only to hold religious beliefs, not act on them.”

Many Christian families endured significant discrimination for traditional, religious convictions on gender and sexuality, while the Biden administration attempted to impose its own ideological system – as evidenced by President Biden establishing “Transgender Day of Visibility” on March 31, which fell on Easter Sunday in 2024.

“The effect was government-driven coercion, forcing Christians with traditional biblical views to choose whether to live in accordance with their faith or risk violating federal law,” the report states.

It further cites religious liberty concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly related to vaccine mandates, which many Christians opposed on religious grounds.

U.S. Navy SEAL Phil Mendes, a former client of First Liberty who was interviewed for the report, was denied a religious accommodation for the COVID-19 vaccine, according to a press release.

First Liberty cases: Real people, real harms

Several First Liberty clients are referenced in the report, illustrating what advocates describe as downstream effects of federal policies on state and local governments, Dys said.

“Time and time again, the federal government under the Biden administration, denied religious liberty protections especially to Christian Americans around the country who are simply trying to be faithful within their everyday life,” Dys said. “The Biden administration’s aggressive posture towards Christianity really trickled down to embolden local leaders – like the mayor of Bryan, Ohio – to go after people of faith rather than really respecting the religious liberty.”

In one case, the city of Bryan, Ohio, required a local church operating a 24-hour shelter to install a fire suppression system that would have imposed significant costs, while a nearby senior living facility was not held to the same standard, Dys said.

In another case, a fifth-grade boy in Southern California was mocked for objecting to read an LGBTQ-themed book to younger students. The school later held a “pink-out the hate day” targeting the student. The family ultimately left after ongoing harassment, according to the report.

“It’s very clear that the Biden administration was filled with very far left activists and ideologues who, rather than apply the law faithfully and actively to all Americans, put their thumb on the scale of justice and punished people of faith, particularly Christians,” Dys said.

Religious liberty and next steps

Beyond documenting alleged discrimination, the report outlines steps the Trump administration is taking to strengthen protections for religious freedom.

“The report looks at all the bad that did occur during the Biden administration, and it’s overwhelming – 500 plus pages of evidence that very clearly show there was a weaponization taking place here,” Dys said. “But then it quickly turns the corner to say we’re going to do something proactive here and positive to protect religious liberty in our country.”

American law establishes both benefits and burdens for the people – benefits because their rights are “enshrined in the Constitution and acknowledged in the Declaration of Independence” and burdens for those who disobey the law, Dys said. He emphasized that religious liberty is a fundamental right protected under U.S. law and applies to all Americans, even the non-religious.

Citizens should hold leaders accountable for protecting those freedoms, Dys said, adding, “we are a nation of laws, not of men,” quoting Founding Father John Adams.

“If we will be a country that insists that our leaders protect every American and afford them all the benefits of the law that is there, then we will have a country that is maximizing not just religious freedom, but maximizing freedom for the entire country,” he said. “And that’s critically important.”