The Los Angeles Times (free registration required) sheds light on one of the Justice Department’s well kept open secrets: It’s religious police.

One of the main jobs at the Justice Department is enforcing the nation’s civil rights laws. So when a nonprofit group was accused of employment discrimination last year in New York, the department moved swiftly to intervene — but not on the side one might expect.

The Salvation Army was accused in a lawsuit of imposing a new religious litmus test on employees hired with millions of dollars in public funds.

When employees complained that they were being required to embrace Jesus Christ to keep their jobs, the Justice Department’s civil rights division took the side of the Salvation Army.

Defending the right of an employer using public funds to discriminate is one of the more provocative steps taken by a little-known arm of the civil rights division and its special counsel for religious discrimination.

The Justice Department’s religious-rights unit, established three years ago, has launched a quiet but ambitious effort aimed at rectifying what the Bush administration views as years of illegal discrimination against religious groups and their followers.

The U.S. having religious police sounds really foreign, huh? To be fair though, the religious police have scored many a victory for the good guys:

For example, the Justice Department prevailed last year when a Muslim girl’s right to wear a head scarf to class was upheld — she had been suspended for violating the dress code at a public school in Oklahoma. The department also has challenged the practice of making residents at some youth detention facilities in the South participate in religious activities.

The mission of this Justice Department division reads as follows:

“Religious liberty was central to the Founders’ vision for America, and is the ‘first freedom’ listed in the 1st Amendment of the Bill of Rights. A critical component of religious liberty is the right of people of all faiths to participate fully in the benefits and privileges of society without facing discrimination based on their religion.”

The Los Angeles Times article focuses on a lawsuit brought by several former employees of the Salvation Army that feel they were unfairly forced to divulge their religious beliefs:

In 2003, according to a lawsuit filed by more than a dozen workers in its Social Services for Children division, the Salvation Army began requiring employees to divulge information about their faiths, including the churches they attended and their ministers.

One of the plaintiffs in the case is one ANJA TAEKKER:

38. Anja Taekker is a Foster Care Caseworker in the Foster Home and Adoption Services department of the Social Services for Children program of The Salvation Army. Ms. Taekker has a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science. Ms. Taekker has been employed by The Salvation Army for two years. As a Foster Care Caseworker performing case management services in the Foster Home and Adoption Services department, Ms. Taekker is required to implement all State and City laws and regulations pertaining to child welfare. In addition, she must participate in training programs as mandated by SSC, New York State and New York City. Ms. Taekker has performed all of her responsibilities with great skill and competence. Her religious beliefs and practices do not, in any respect, bear directly on her performance of her professional responsibilities. Ms. Taekker prefers to maintain her personal privacy and does not want to disclose her religious beliefs and practices to her employer. Ms. Taekker is resident of Westchester County, New York and a taxpayer of the State of New York.

The Justice Department has already staked out its position on this matter:

The department’s position in the case — that religious groups should be able to hire or fire people based on their religious views, even when administering publicly funded programs — is a cornerstone of President Bush’s faith-based initiative. The initiative is channeling hundreds of millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars to churches and other religious groups to deliver social services.

Although the Civil Rights Act of 1964 preserves the right of religious organizations to discriminate in hiring, it does not address the question of whether that applies to groups that accept public funds. That issue has not been legally resolved.

[Update 3/8/04: Just to clarify the Justice Department has no such thing as “religious police.” That characterization of that part of their civil rights division was intended purely as sarcasm. The unit has done some fine work but in the case of the Salvation Army they find themselves (in my opinion) to be in conflict with their own mandate as well as the law.]