Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz has faced multiple lawsuits accusing him of infringing on religious liberty during his six years as Minnesota governor.
Walz encountered legal challenges for COVID-19 lockdown policies that religious organizations argued were discriminatory, placing stricter requirements on churches than businesses. After signing a law that stripped faith-based schools of funding for a program offering high school students free college credits, he also encountered pushback.
Walz determined in a May 13, 2020, executive order that retailers would be allowed to reopen at 50% capacity, but he left religious gatherings capped at 10 people. After Catholic and Lutheran churches in Minnesota announced plans to resume meeting in person regardless of the governor’s order, he negotiated to allow religious groups to operate at 25% capacity, according to the Minneapolis-based Star Tribune.
Two churches nevertheless moved forward with their lawsuit over discriminatory treatment. Walz settled in May 2021 after the state’s motion to dismiss was denied, agreeing to treat religious gatherings the same as “the least restricted secular business regulated by the order.”
Three churches backed by the Thomas More Society also filed a lawsuit in August 2020, arguing Walz violated their religious liberty by mandating masks, limiting capacity, and requiring social distancing.
“Governor Walz, a former teacher, gets an F in religious liberties,” Thomas More Society special counsel Erick Kaardal said in a press release.
In May, the Minnesota Supreme Court upheld Walz’s declaration of a peacetime emergency in response to COVID-19, according to the Upper Midwest Law Center.
Walz also faced a lawsuit in May 2023 after he signed into law a bill barring schools that require students to affirm a statement of faith from receiving funding from Minnesota’s Post Secondary Enrollment Options program, which allows high school students to earn free college credits. Minnesota agreed not to enforce the law while the lawsuit is ongoing.
Becket senior counsel Diana Thomson called the state’s decision to exclude faith-based schools “patently anti-religious.”
Walz signed legislation in May that clarified religious exemptions from the Minnesota Human Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race, religion, sex, and sexual orientation.
Republicans pushed for the bill after the state Legislature added “gender identity” as a protected class but didn’t add a religious exemption, according to the Minnesota Reformer.
In April 2023, Walz signed a bill into law that banned “conversion therapy,” defined as any practice that seeks to “change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity” for clients under 18. At the same time, he signed a bill to make Minnesota a “trans refuge” state, which allows state courts to assume “temporary emergency jurisdiction” if a child has “been unable to obtain gender-affirming health care.”
The Harris campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Walz’s record on religious liberty.
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This column was published at Paul Vallely’s Substack
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