The publicly posted comments on the Trump administration’s plan to give religious and faith-based groups free rein to discriminate and deny service are overwhelmingly positive. Of 80 responses to the proposal, just nine are critical. But the “publicly posted” part is important here:
The agency has instead posted 80 comments — less than 1 percent of all submissions — that overwhemingly back the administration’s anti-abortion policies or attack regulations advanced by the Obama administration, such as a rule forcing health care providers that accept federal funding to provide services to transgender patients.
HHS’ selective disclosure could lead to legal challenges, particularly under the Administrative Procedure Act, and is raising new questions at a time when the agency’s transparency is already under scrutiny. If HHS doesn’t post and address comments on the rule, “there may be grounds for an APA challenge for whatever rule comes out of the process,” said Alison Tanner of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking the missing comments three weeks ago.
Groups organizing against the Trump administration plan, including the ACLU, the NAACP, and dozens more, know that there are critical comments out there, because they submitted some of them.
Here's a sample of what the ACLU had to say about the proposal:
This RFI and other actions the Administration has taken, such as the so-called religious liberty” guidance issued by Attorney General Sessions, also indicate that the Administration is poised to allow government-funded organizations to refuse to hire someone who does not act in accordance with particular religious beliefs—this could include someone who doesn’t regularly attend religious services, is married to a person of the same sex, undergoes a gender transition, gets divorced, uses birth control, or is pregnant and unmarried. The Department should reject such efforts—HHS grantees and contractors should not be allowed to discriminate against those they serve and employ.
Not that you’d know that if you relied on Trump’s HHS for your information.