In today's Wall of Separation blog post, Americans United Legislative Assistant Director Dena Sher outlined the steps the Trump administration and its allies took against church-state separation last week, including US Attorney General Jeff Sessions' speech to Alliance Defending Freedom.

Also last week, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke to a conference held by Alliance Defending Freedom. This legal group is our frequent foe. It’s at the helm of many of the cases brought by businesses that want to use religion as an excuse to discriminate against customers, including Masterpiece Cakeshop, which will be heard by the Supreme Court in the fall, and Arlene’s Flowers, which ADF asked the Supreme Court to review on Friday. And it’s defending the truly harmful Mississippi law known as HB 1523 that allows religion to be used as a reason to treat some Mississippians as second-class citizens.

In his speech, Sessions announced something ADF and others on the Religious Right have been eagerly awaiting: He will soon issue guidance on federal religious freedom protections. But we know what that really means: religious freedom laws will be used as an excuse to deny the rights of other people—LGBTQ people and women, but also against religious minorities, nontheists, and almost anyone else. Our laws, though, should be a shield to protect religious freedom and not a sword to harm others in this way.

You can read the rest of Dena's post here.