Harmeet Dhillon, as usual, has the receipts.
The civil rights chief at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has asked the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to investigate Major League Baseball (MLB) over its attempt to stop Christian players from the San Francisco Giants from wearing Bible verses on their caps.
The players inscribed the verses — Genesis 9:12-16, referring to the origins of the rainbow — as a silent protest against being forced to wear Pride-themed uniforms.
As Dhillon pointed out Thursday in a letter to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, the league allowed players to wear “Black Lives Matter” on their uniforms if they wanted to do so.
Had the league stuck to a policy of banning all statements on uniforms, it would be well within its rights to do so.
But once it starts picking and choosing messages, and suppressing religious messages in particular, it is engaged in a form of discrimination prohibited by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Under that law, employers must “reasonably accommodate an employee’s religious observance” unless doing so would “impose undue hardship” on the business.
In this case, it was the Giants’ own conduct — attempting to force players to endorse Pride month — that infringed on some players’ religious beliefs. And MLB compounded the damage by warning the players that they were not allowed to assert their religious beliefs in response.
Religious liberty is the first freedom in the Bill of Rights. And while the separation of church and state is also crucial, our laws have long protected the expression of religious beliefs, as long as they do not impose on the freedom of others.
For too long, MLB has bowed to the woke mob. In 2021, the league moved the All-Star Game from Atlanta to Denver over Democrats’ outrage at a new voting law in Georgia that improved security without limiting access to the polls.
From then-President Joe Biden on down, the left called the new law “Jim Crow 2.0.” It was nothing of the sort.
Ironically, moving the All-Star game caused severe economic damage to Atlanta businesses, many of them black-owned.
Dhillon, who is from California herself, is one of the most valuable members of the Trump administration. She understands that equal rights for the LGBTQ+ community should not come at the expense of the freedoms of other Americans.
America’s national pastime should uphold America’s core values. MLB needs to respect players’ religious freedom, or face the legal consequences.
