Federal employees may discuss and promote their religious beliefs in the workplace, the Trump administration said on Monday, citing religious freedoms protected by the U.S. Constitution.
Agency employees may seek to “persuade others of the correctness of their own religious views” in the office, wrote Scott Kupor, director of the Office of Personnel Management, the U.S. government’s human resources agency.
Supervisors can attempt to recruit their employees to their religion, so long as the efforts aren’t “harassing in nature,” according to Kupor’s statement. Agencies can’t discipline their employees for declining to talk to their coworkers about their religious views.
The statement represents the latest effort of the six-month-old Republican Trump administration to expand the role of religion in the federal workplace.
Courts have long held that employers cannot suppress all religious expression in the workplace, but can lawfully curb conduct that is disruptive or i
The U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment protects individuals’ rights to practice their religion while preventing the government from favoring one religion or another or religion in general.
OPM in mid-July said agency workers can get permission to work from home or adjust their hours to accommodate religious prayers, after previously demanding that workers report to offices fulltime.
The new statement cites President Donald Trump’s February executive order calling on agencies to eliminate the “anti-Christian weaponization of government.”
That order directs cabinet secretaries to identify federal actions hostile to Christians. Trump has embraced the conservative Christian world view and promoted policies that speak to concerns that their religious liberty is under attack.
Federal employees can also set up prayer groups in the workplace, so long as they don’t meet during work hours, Kupor’s statement said.
