The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has issued a memo directing agencies to take affirmative steps to protect federal employees’ religious expression rights in the workplace. The memo emphasizes that such rights are protected under:
- The First Amendment
- Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
- Relevant Supreme Court decisions, including Groff v. DeJoy and Kennedy v. Bremerton School District
“Federal employees should never have to choose between their faith and their career,” OPM Director Scott Kupor said. “This guidance ensures the federal workplace is not just compliant with the law but welcoming to Americans of all faiths. Under President Trump’s leadership, we are restoring constitutional freedoms and making government a place where people of faith are respected, not sidelined.”
Agencies are instructed to allow religious expression to the greatest extent possible unless it imposes an undue hardship on operations. Discomfort from coworkers is not considered a valid hardship under the law. The memo states, “Title VII requires employers to reasonably
accommodate an employee’s religious observances, practices, and beliefs unless doing so would cause an undue hardship on the conduct of the employer’s business. Further, ‘a coworker’s dislike of religious practice and expression in the workplace . . . is not cognizable to factor into the undue hardship inquiry.'”
This new memo builds on one OPM issued earlier this month that outlined how telework can be used as a religious accommodation in the federal workplace, for instance allowing federal employees to telework on days of religious significance. Agencies were instructed to consider the requests to telework on a case-by-case basis while balancing operational needs with the requests.
Allowable Categories of Conduct
The memo identifies several categories of religious conduct that must not result in disciplinary or corrective action, provided they are not disruptive or harassing. These include but are not limited to the following:
Display and Use of Items Used for Religious Purposes or Religious Icons
Employees should be allowed to display and use religious items, such as bibles, artwork, jewelry, posters with religious messages, and crosses, crucifixes, and mezuzahs, on their desks, person, and in their assigned workspaces.
Expressions By Groups of Federal Employees
Agencies should permit one or more employees to engage in individual or communal religious expressions in both formal and informal settings, whether alone or with fellow employees. However, these expressions should not occur during on-duty time. Agencies should not restrict such expressions solely based on hypothetical or potential concerns.
Conversations Between Federal Employees
Employees can engage in conversations about religious topics with their coworkers, including attempting to persuade others of their religious beliefs. However, these efforts must not be harassing in nature.
Employees can also encourage their coworkers to participate in religious expressions of faith, such as prayer, to the same extent as they would encourage others to participate in other personal activities.
The constitutional rights of supervisors to engage in such conversations should not be different from those of non-supervisory employees based on their supervisory roles. However, unwillingness to engage in such conversations should not be the basis for workplace discipline.
Expressions Among or Directed at Members of the Public
An employee’s fundamental right to personal religious expression as a private citizen is not restricted by the venue or the person hearing the expression, regardless of whether the employee is a government employee. Therefore, their religious beliefs cannot be suppressed simply because of their religious nature.
However, when public employees make statements while performing their official duties, they are not acting as citizens for First Amendment purposes. Consequently, their communications are not protected by the Constitution and can be subject to employer discipline.
Expressions in Areas Accessible to the Public
The rights of employees to express their religion in their personal capacities, even in public areas, should be treated similarly to their rights to express religion in private settings. Their right to free expression is not restricted when they enter a public facility.
Examples of Permissible Religious Expression in the Workplace
OPM’s memo includes an appendix which lists examples of permissible religious expression in the workplace. The following is a copy of that appendix.
Display and Use of Items Used for Religious Purposes or Religious Icons
- An employee may keep a Bible on her desk, and may read it during breaks. Similarly, an employee may keep rosary beads or tefillin on her desk. During breaks, she may use such items to pray.
- An agency may restrict all posters, but an agency may not single out religious posters, such as those of a crucifix, a Bible verse, or a Star of David, for harsher treatment.
- An employee may wear a cross, as well as clothing displaying a religious message.
Expressions By Groups of Federal Employees
- A group of employees may form a prayer group and gather for prayer or study of scripture or holy books at the office while not on duty hours.
- An employee who requests his supervisor prohibit his coworkers from gathering in an empty conference room for prayer should politely be told his coworkers’ conduct will be allowed to continue as it is permissible.
Conversations Between Federal Employees
- During a break, an employee may engage another in polite discussion of why his faith is correct and why the non-adherent should re-think his religious beliefs. However, if the nonadherent requests such attempts to stop, the employee should honor the request.
- An employee may invite another to worship at her church despite being belonging to a different faith.
- On a bulletin board meant for personal announcements, a supervisor may post a handwritten note inviting each of his employees to attend an Easter service at his church.
Expressions Among or Directed at Members of the Public
- A park ranger leading a tour through a national park may join her tour group in prayer.
- A doctor at a Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital may pray over his patient for her recovery.
Expressions in Areas Accessible to the Public
- A security guard stationed at the front desk of a federal office building may display and use a crucifix, Bible, or use rosary beads.
- A receptionist in a doctor’s office at a VA Medical Center may pray with a coworker in the patients’ waiting area.
