Key facts
- A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit challenging the composition of President Donald Trump's Religious Liberty Commission.
- The lawsuit argued the commission lacked viewpoint diversity due to its overwhelmingly conservative Christian membership.
- Judge John P. Cronan stated that while a federal law requires advisory commissions to have a balance of viewpoints, it does not specify how this balance must be achieved.
- Cronan ruled that President Trump has broad discretion in selecting commission members.
- The judge also noted the commission includes clergy and lay people, and adherents of at least five different religions.
- The Interfaith Alliance criticized the commission's draft report for challenging the understanding of church-state separation.
A federal judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit filed by an interfaith group that challenged the legitimacy of President Donald Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission. The plaintiffs, including the progressive Interfaith Alliance and Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh groups, argued that the commission lacked a legally required balance of viewpoints due to its predominantly conservative Christian membership, with only one Orthodox Jewish rabbi also on the panel. They contended that several commissioners had publicly questioned church-state separation and supported the idea of America as a Judeo-Christian country.