❓WHAT HAPPENED: The Trump administration issued new guidance affirming that federal employees may openly express their religious beliefs at work.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: The Office of Personnel Management, federal employees, and CatholicVote President Kelsey Reinhardt.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The guidance was issued on July 28, 2025, and applies to federal workplaces across the United States.
💬KEY QUOTE: “From the very founding of our nation, faith was not relegated to the private sphere but boldly woven into the fabric of public life.” – CatholicVote president Kelsey Reinhardt
🎯IMPACT: The guidance expands religious freedoms for federal employees and reinforces constitutional protections for faith expression in the workplace.
The Trump administration issued updated guidance on Monday, affirming that federal employees are permitted to express their religious beliefs in the workplace openly. The new directive clarifies that federal workers may engage in religious activities such as praying with colleagues, sharing their faith, and displaying religious symbols in their personal office spaces.
According to a memo from the Office of Personnel Management, federal workers are allowed to attempt to “persuade others of the correctness of their own religious views” and invite coworkers to religious functions, provided such actions do not cross the line into harassment.
This policy marks a broader effort by the administration to defend constitutional rights and ensure that federal employees are protected from retaliation due to their faith. The guidance builds upon pre-existing Department of Labor rules but goes further in creating space for religious activity during the workday. Now, federal staff can keep items like crosses, Bibles, and other religious objects at their desks. Additionally, supervisors may post church-related flyers, for instance, on office bulletin boards, and public-facing officials, such as park rangers or healthcare providers, may pray with members of the public.
The guidance also calls on federal agencies to revise their internal rules to reflect these expanded protections. It references the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Groff v. DeJoy, which reinforced legal safeguards around religious accommodation in the workplace.
Kelsey Reinhardt, President of CatholicVote, commended the guidance, calling it “a reaffirmation of America’s founding principles.”
“From the very founding of our nation, faith was not relegated to the private sphere but boldly woven into the fabric of public life,” Reinhardt added, praising other recent steps by the administration to defend people of faith, including an executive order addressing anti-Christian discrimination and the creation of the Religious Liberty Commission.
“The assurance that… expressions [of faith] will be welcomed and safeguarded in federal workplaces not only honors our history; it reinvigorates the spirit of liberty for every citizen,” she said.
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