In an infuriating but much-needed reminder that the rot that has long led to the decay of civil society in America is present across the nation, not just in the deepest blue cities in the deepest blue states, the Department of Justice has caught a city in the ruby red state of Alabama discriminating against a Christian recovery organization.
As background, the Department of Justice under President Trump has taken a very different tack than that under former President Joe Biden, and is attempting to protect Americans of all races rather than use the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division against them. Further, it is doing the same to protect rather than discriminate against Christians, as shown by the current case.
Announcing the legal defense of the Christian organization and indicating what laws the Alabama city might have broken in a press release released on Thursday, September 4, the DOJ said, “Today, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division launched an investigation into the City of Rainsville, Alabama, to determine whether the City violated Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA), and the Fair Housing Act (FHA) by denying a faith-based organization’s application to operate an addiction-recovery facility in the City.”
Continuing, the press release described in somewhat more detail how the city worked against the Christian recovery organization, stating, “The Department opened this investigation after receiving a complaint alleging that the City denied a Christian recovery organization the ability to establish a Christian discipleship program, motivated by a desire to keep away ‘drug addicts.’ The program was intended to rehabilitate men with drug and alcohol dependency, and other life-controlling problems.”
Building on that, the press release described how that discrimination against the Christian organization is illegal not just because of religious liberty law but because of other restraints as well, it said, “The ADA prohibits discrimination based on disability by public entities. People in recovery from substance use disorders who are not currently engaging in illegal drug use are protected by the ADA.”
Further, commenting on how not just the ADA but FHA makes the city’s discrimination against the Christian organization’s recovery program illegal, the press release stated, “The ADA prohibits public entities from discriminating against people with disabilities on that basis. The FHA further prohibits such discrimination by municipalities in making housing unavailable to people with disabilities.”
Then, returning to the matter of religious liberty and the city’s alleged violation of it in denying the Christian recovery organization an ability to help people, the DOJ stated, “RLUIPA is a federal law that guards religious institutions from unduly burdensome, unequal, or discriminatory land use regulations.”
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Commenting on the matter in a statement released by the DOJ, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, who heads the Civil Rights Division, said, “The ADA affords every individual, including those on the path to recovery, the dignity and opportunity to fully participate in society.”
She further added that the Civil Rights Division will continue protecting Christians from attacks on their religious liberty, saying, “The Civil Rights Division stands guard to protect not only the rights of Americans with disabilities, but also the rights of religious institutions to minister to those recovering from substance abuse.”