President Trump Addresses Federal Religious Liberty Commission

Religious Freedom,

On September 8, the federal Religious Liberty Commission hosted a gathering with U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi, President Donald Trump, and American students and parents.

During the gathering, students and parents shared about challenges to religious liberty in the public school system.

Protecting the free exercise of religion has been a high priority this year. In February the president signed an executive order establishing the Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias. The task force’s purpose is to “protect the religious freedoms of Americans and end the anti-Christian weaponization of government.”

The Religious Liberty Commission that met earlier this month was established through a second executive order President Trump signed in May.

The commission is responsible for producing “a comprehensive report on the foundations of religious liberty in America, strategies to increase awareness of and celebrate America’s peaceful religious pluralism, current threats to religious liberty, and strategies to preserve and enhance protections for future generations.”

In recent years news outlets and congressional testimony have alleged that government policies and departments have been weaponized against people of faith — especially conservative and Christian organizations.

Federal workers and military personnel have also come under fire for living out their faith.

In 2013, Family Research Council compiled examples of attacks against religious liberty in the military. In 2014, news broke about the federal government making Veterans Affairs hospital chapels “religiously neutral.” And in 2015 a Navy chaplain was relieved of his duties for holding biblical views on homosexuality.

In August the U.S. Office of Personnel Management issued a new memo to help prevent this type of religious discrimination in federal workplaces.

We applaud the federal government for taking steps to prevent anti-Christian bias in the federal government and preserve the free exercise of religion for all Americans. No one should face discrimination for their faith.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

READ MORE

Court Records Shed Light On Illicit Marijuana’s Connection to Organized Crime

Marijuana

Newly unsealed court records shed light on illicit marijuana’s connection to organized crime.

We have written repeatedly about how marijuana’s legalization has actually emboldened drug cartels in many states. The DOJ has said organized crime from Mexico and China may be making millions of dollars from black market marijuana in states like California, Maine, New York, and Massachusetts.

Fox 23 News in Maine reports that newly unsealed court records shed light on the extent of the problem in rural areas of that state, writing:

The federal government started cracking down on illegal marijuana grows after a leaked federal memo, first obtained by the conservative Daily Caller and published August 2023, estimated that Maine had as many as 270 large-scale illegal marijuana grows connected to organized crime groups in China.

Thousands of pounds of marijuana have been seized in the years since. In July seven people were charged in what prosecutors describe as a multimillion-dollar illegal marijuana growing, human trafficking and money laundering operation in Maine and Massachusetts.

Authorities in Arkansas routinely seize illegal marijuana from Oklahoma and other states along Arkansas’ highways.

Some of these marijuana operations are tied to labor trafficking, violent crime, and foreign adversaries.

NPR has reported that illegal immigrants from China “are taking jobs at hundreds of cannabis farms springing up across the U.S.” Other correspondents have revealed how these illegal marijuana operations contribute to “modern day slavery on American soil.”

All of this simply further underscores how marijuana may be many things, but “harmless” simply is not one of them.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

READ MORE

State of Arkansas Continues Legal Battle Against Chinese-Owned Temu

China,

The State of Arkansas is continuing its legal battle against Chinese company Temu for allegedly deceiving Arkansans and illegally accessing their personal data.

Temu is marketed as an online shopping platform similar to Amazon or Walmart.com. In 2023, Temu was reported to be the most widely downloaded app in the U.S., and its multibillion-dollar marketing campaign — which included a Super Bowl ad in 2024 — has contributed to its success.

But as a Chinese-based tech company, security and privacy experts have raised concerns about Temu. The A.G.’s team first filed its lawsuit against Temu in state court last year. Since then, Temu’s attorneys have fought to have the case thrown out.

In August, the Arkansas Attorney General filed an amended complaint opposing Temu’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit. The filing argues Temu’s app secretly harvests Arkansans’ private information—including precise location, installed apps, online accounts, microphones, and cameras—and funnels it to servers subject to Chinese laws.

The A.G.’s team has also alleged that the Temu app is able to bypass phone security systems, potentially granting Temu access to a user’s private messages.

The A.G. maintains that all of this is unconscionable under the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, which carries a penalty of $10,000 per violation.

Attorneys for Temu are expected to file a response to the A.G. in court by September 22.

It’s worth pointing out the A.G.’s allegations against Temu are very similar to points the A.G.’s office has made in its lawsuits against TikTok — another widely popular internet platform owned by a Chinese company.

Family Council is not aware of any attorney general in America who is doing more to hold tech companies accountable than Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin.

Bad actors like the Chinese Communist Party must not be allowed to secretly harvest Americans’ private data.

We appreciate Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin taking this issue so seriously in court.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

READ MORE