Oct 21, 2026 · 56 min · 10 segments
Alison, Liz, and Rebecca discuss the Trump administration's Religious Liberty Commission and break down its draft report. They explain how the commission and its report fit into the administration's…
Rebecca MarkertHost
Allison GillHostLiz CavellHost
What is the Religious Liberty Commission? The Religious Liberty Commission was established by the Trump administration through an executive order, as he likes to do, Executive Order 14291.
And you all probably know that the first Thursday in May every year is the National Day of Prayer.
So the Religious Liberty Commission was announced on the National Day of Prayer in 2025.
What this EO did was create the commission that is an advisory committee focused on, quote, defending religious liberty for all Americans and, quote, celebrating America's peaceful religious pluralism.
I wonder, Rebecca, are there like laws around these or can they just make up whatever the hell they want?
So there is the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which lays out the guidelines on how an advisory committee to the president or to the federal government should be comprised.
It's going to have different requirements on the composition and also transparency, what the commission does, needs to be available to the public, things like that.
But to go back to the commission itself, they originally set the commission for a period of one year.
They were going to end operations on July 4th of this year because it was the 250th, but they quickly extended it to September 30th, 2027.
Now, Even though the operations go until next year, so a year from now, they've already released a draft report, another thing that we're going to talk about a little bit later.
Then they said, we'll take another year, and then they came back to releasing the report right before the July 4th holiday.
What is the Religious Liberty Commission? The Religious Liberty Commission was established by the Trump administration through an executive order, as he likes to do, Executive Order 14291.
And you all probably know that the first Thursday in May every year is the National Day of Prayer.
So the Religious Liberty Commission was announced on the National Day of Prayer in 2025.
What this EO did was create the commission that is an advisory committee focused on, quote, defending religious liberty for all Americans and, quote, celebrating America's peaceful religious pluralism.
I wonder, Rebecca, are there like laws around these or can they just make up whatever the hell they want?
So there is the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which lays out the guidelines on how an advisory committee to the president or to the federal government should be comprised.
It's going to have different requirements on the composition and also transparency, what the commission does, needs to be available to the public, things like that.
But to go back to the commission itself, they originally set the commission for a period of one year.
They were going to end operations on July 4th of this year because it was the 250th, but they quickly extended it to September 30th, 2027.
Now, Even though the operations go until next year, so a year from now, they've already released a draft report, another thing that we're going to talk about a little bit later.
Then they said, we'll take another year, and then they came back to releasing the report right before the July 4th holiday.
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