Professor Mark L. Rienzi of The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law (Catholic Law) had an op-ed published in the National Review. The piece looks at the brief 30 year history of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and how we can respectfully accommodate America’s pluralism. Rienzi is the president and CEO of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and co-director of the Center for Religious Liberty at Catholic Law.

National Review
Date: November 17, 2023
By: Mark Rienzi
The Enduring Achievement and Relevance of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act

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We also helped the Little Sisters of the Poor and the Green family, the latter of whom started the arts and craft store Hobby Lobby, receive exemptions from the Obama administration’s mandate forcing religious nonprofits and family-owned companies to provide contraceptives in their health-insurance plans. The federal bureaucracy, we argued, does not need the Little Sisters’ or the Green family’s help to provide contraceptives through the Affordable Care Act (ACA). And after over a decade of fighting us on that position, the Biden administration seems to finally agree that we were right. In recently proposed rules under the ACA, the government opted to “leave in place the existing religious exemption for entities and individuals with objection” while also creating a way for Americans whose employers have a religious exemption under the rule to receive contraceptives for free. The government’s about-face signals that RFRA is working, and our society is operating more peacefully because of it.
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Click here to view the op-ed at National Review.