Biden puts Americans’ freedoms on trial

OPINION:

Freedom is on trial in America, and the Biden administration has assumed the roles of judge, jury and executioner. The American people are brooding over one simple question: Which of my freedoms will be the next to go? For the last year and a half, the Biden administration waged its own prosecution against the American people — with a two-pronged strategy to disarm freedom and create a nanny state that controls every aspect of American life. This is not a dystopian musing: This is the reality we now face.

With abounding examples of how this administration has stripped away our freedoms, many would not even know where to begin. Let me count the ways.

First, the Biden Justice Department targeted concerned parents. It investigated them as “domestic terrorists” for simply speaking up out of concern for their children — a right that was bestowed upon them by God and not the federal government. This all came about after the National School Boards Association colluded with the Biden administration on a thinly sourced letter that made ludicrous accusations against parents who attended school board meetings. In turn, the Justice Department worked in concert with the FBI to investigate parents and create a threat tag system.

Second, the Biden administration has leveled multiple attacks on religious freedom. Consider the case of Sharon Fast Gustafson, the former Trump-appointed General Counsel of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission whom President Joe Biden fired in March of last year. The United States Senate confirmed her four-year appointment, which was terminated two years early. Her prominent stance on protecting religious freedom was not welcomed by the Biden administration, and as an individual who fought to uphold the principle of religious freedom that our Republic was built upon, her voice was quashed. This was not the first instance of partisan warfare from Mr. Biden: He fired Peter Robb, the general counsel for the National Labor Relations Board, two months prior when Mr. Robb had 10 months left on his Senate-confirmed term. Whom will they come for next?

Also, consider the Biden administration’s treatment of religious federal contractors. In December, the Department of Labor issued a proposed rule revoking the Trump administration’s final rule, which clarified the rights and obligations of religious federal contractors. Without this rule, faith-based organizations risk being discriminated against for their religious beliefs when bidding on federal contracts.

Third, the Biden administration is putting educational freedom into a bureaucratic guillotine. We have seen more than our fair share of partisan assaults on academic freedom since Mr. Biden first stepped into the Oval Office — from proposals to inject the radical and discredited 1619 Project into classrooms to undercutting charter schools.

Of course, I would be remiss if I did not call attention to the Biden administration’s hack job of COVID-19 school guidelines that relegated students across the country to virtual instruction instead of learning alongside their peers in classrooms causing devastating learning loss and exacerbating mental health issues. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten share equal blame for this catastrophe. It comes down to one point: When you control the education of our future leaders, you control society itself.

Lastly, the Biden administration is seeking to restrict when, where and how Americans can work. This is especially true if you are one of the nearly 19 million workers who prefer the independent contractor model. The DOL announced it would engage in rule-making to change how it determines the status of independent contractors under the Fair Labor Standards Act, which will likely deny workers entrepreneurial opportunities and flexibility. Even the freedom to work on your own terms is not exempt from the bureaucratic tyranny of this administration.

These four examples are merely a taste of how this administration has put freedom on trial, and one worries which of our freedoms will be on the docket next. When the bureaucracy is let off the leash, this is the result we can expect.

Though the Biden administration’s prosecution of our rights is concerning, the American people are offering a robust defense. There will be a reckoning come November, and it will be a referendum on the war that this administration has waged on the American people since day one.

• U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx represents North Carolina’s 5th Congressional District and is the Republican Leader of the House Committee on Education and Labor.