April 9, 2020
Courtesy of Eric S. Dreiband, Assistant Attorney General for
the Civil Rights Division
As our country faces the challenge of COVID-19, our founding
ideals remain critically important.
At Gettysburg, President Abraham Lincoln explained that the
United States is a “nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal.” Americans in Lincoln’s time were
engaged in a murderous civil war.
Today, we are battling a life-threatening virus, but the
same principles that guided Lincoln must guide us now, especially when it comes
to protecting our civil rights. The Department of Justice Civil Rights
Division, which I lead, is committed to this mission, and this means that we
are dedicated to protecting those who are targeted for their disability,
religion, race, or other protected trait.
Americans are engaged in the fight against the pandemic.
Courageous healthcare professionals, public officials, corporations,
volunteers, houses of worship, and others are working tirelessly to battle the
pandemic, save lives, and preserve health.
The Justice Department’s pandemic-related work includes
enforcing disability-rights laws, protecting religious liberty, and prosecuting
hate crimes.
We are dedicated to the equal dignity of individuals with
disabilities and will take action against anyone who violates federal law in
dispensing healthcare in response to COVID-19. The Americans with Disabilities
Act and other laws prohibit rationing healthcare away from individuals because
of their mental or physical disabilities. Federal law also protects the right
of individuals with disabilities to have access to healthcare on the same basis
as nondisabled people.
To that end, the department has resolved over 50 allegations
of disability discrimination in healthcare, including a recent agreement with a
medical center to improve access for mobility-impaired individuals and the
ability of deaf patients and family members to communicate effectively with
staff.
Meanwhile, COVID-19 has changed the way many Americans must
practice their faith. Governments have issued social distancing guidelines, and
many states and cities have made limits on gatherings mandatory. Many places of
worship responded by making services available online.
There is no pandemic exception for religious freedom
protections. Although it is legal for the government to protect health and
safety by limiting assemblies, including religious assemblies, government may
not impose special restrictions on religious activity that it does not apply to
similar nonreligious activity.
For example, if a government orders that houses of worship
close or limit their congregation size, those limits must also apply to movie
theaters, restaurants, concert halls, and all other comparable places of
assembly. The Department of Justice will continue to enforce federal law to
protect religious freedom if states or localities single out or target houses
of worship for special restrictions in their response to COVID-19.
Through our Place to Worship Initiative, the Justice
Department enforces federal law that requires local governments to treat
religious assemblies as well as nonreligious assemblies in their zoning laws.
In the past year, we helped a church in New York win an
order allowing it to locate in a commercial district where theaters, fraternal
organizations, and other assemblies were permitted. We also filed cases and
friend-of-the-court briefs involving synagogues, a Buddhist retreat center, a
Hindu temple, an Islamic association, and various Christian denominations.
Finally, the coronavirus originated in China, and some
people have targeted Asian Americans and Asians simply because of their
ethnicity. This conduct has no place in America. As President Trump has
explained, COVID-19 “is not their fault in any way, shape, or form.”
The Justice Department will prosecute hate crimes and
violations of anti-discrimination laws against Asian Americans, Asians, and
others to the fullest extent of the law. Attorney General William Barr and I
have instructed department prosecutors that we will not tolerate hate-motivated
acts of violence.
For example, we recently brought hate crimes charges
concerning the murder of members of the Hispanic community at a Walmart in El
Paso, Texas, and the killings at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. We prosecuted and obtained a conviction and the ultimate penalty
against the man who senselessly murdered African American worshipers at Mother
Emmanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
Together, we will defeat COVID-19. Under the leadership of
Trump and Barr, the Department of Justice will continue to fight for the civil
rights of all Americans. We will protect the equal dignity of every person in
our country, the freedom to exercise religion, and the safety and security of
all, no matter their disability status, religion, race, or other protected
characteristic. And, when the mighty scourge of this virus passes from the scene,
we will have preserved what Lincoln called “the last, best hope of earth.”
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment