The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) has rescinded a 2020 rule's expansion of a religious exemption to equal opportunity requirements, returning the exemption to its prior scope. The rescission takes effect March 31.
The 2020 rule's expansion of the religious exemption had created the potential of conflict between religion and other protected characteristics, some legal experts said. However, Craig Leen, an attorney with K&L Gates in Washington, D.C., who was director of the OFCCP at the time of the 2020 rule, said that rule did not permit discrimination against other protected classes such as LGBTQ people.
The OFCCP enforces Executive Order 11246, which prohibits federal contractors and subcontractors from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or national origin. The executive order has a religious exemption for certain religious corporations, associations and educational institutions for the employment of individuals of a particular religion.
Purpose of 2020 Rule
Covered entities had not been previously explicitly defined prior to the 2020 rule, said Sheila Willis, an attorney with Fisher Phillips in Columbia, S.C. The 2020 rule departed from jurisprudence under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which the OFCCP had used as guideposts for enforcement and interpretation.
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