Nine federal agencies have proposed restoring religious liberty protections that were rescinded during the Trump administration, according to a press release from the Department of Health and Human Services. It’s a long-awaited step in the right direction from the Biden administration and corrects a host of unnecessary and cruel restrictions that allowed groups to get away with religious discrimination.

In December of 2020, after the election but while Trump was still in power, those nine agencies loosened restrictions that made sure religious groups receiving taxpayer money to provide social services didn’t shove their religion in the faces of the people they were supposed to be helping.

Specifically:

Faith-based service providers no longer had to refer clients elsewhere if they were uncomfortable with the group’s religious affiliation.

Clients no longer had to be told about their religious freedom rights, or that they didn’t have to participate in any religious activities (like prayer), or that they were entitled to go to an alternative service provider, or that they could file a complaint if necessary.

There were no longer any requirements for secular social service providers to be offered as options whenever religious ones were available.

As American Atheists explained at the time, “The unlawful rule… makes it harder for already marginalized populations to access essential social services as the U.S. continues to reel from a historic pandemic and economic collapse.”

AA and a coalition of civil rights groups including the Freedom From Religion Foundation and Americans United for Separation of Church and State sued the Trump administration over all this. Their lawsuit claimed the rules were arbitrary and never justified. They had a point. It’s not like the administration offered any rationale for changing those rules, suggesting it was simply an overture to the most bigoted members of the Republican Party’s base. They also never publicly accounted for the harm this change would cause, or considered any other alternatives, violating the law.