Trump's Religious Freedom Executive Order Just 'An Elaborate Photo-Op'?

President Donald Trump signed an executive order promoting religious freedom to mark the National Day of Prayer on Thursday. The new order, however, is a watered down version of the earlier controversial proposal that was leaked in February this year.

“Today’s executive order signing was an elaborate photo-op with no discernible policy outcome,” the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) director Anthony Romero said in a statement Thursday.

ACLU had earlier indicated that it would sue if the president signed an order “that allow religion to be used as an excuse to discriminate,” ending its tweet with #SeeYouInCourtAgain.

Read: What Is President Trump's Religious Freedom Executive Order?

However, the nonprofit determined that the executive order, in its current state, would not affect the rights of the people. Romero said: “After careful review of the order’s text we have determined that the order does not meaningfully alter the ability of religious institutions or individuals to intervene in the political process.”

“The order portends, but does not yet do harm to the provision of reproductive health services,” he added.

The new executive order looks to “vigorously enforce Federal law's robust protections for religious freedom,” according to the text released by the White House, and “respect and protect the freedom of persons and organizations to engage in religious and political speech.”

“We are giving churches their voices back,” Trump said during the ceremony at the White House. The president had also said that he wanted to do away with the Johnson Amendment, a provision that prohibits religious institutions from supporting or opposing political parties and candidates.

ACLU, however, did not believe that any such step had been taken by the president.

“President Trump’s prior assertion that he wished to ‘totally destroy’ the Johnson Amendment with this order has proven to be a textbook case of ‘fake news,’" Romero said.

The new executive order also instructs the Departments of Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services to consider amending regulations in the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, which require employers to cover contraception in employee insurance plans. The key word here would be “consider.”

“The directive to federal agencies to explore religious-based exceptions to healthcare does cue up a potential future battle, but as of now, the status quo has not changed,” ACLU’s director said. “What President Trump did today was merely provide a faux sop to religious conservatives and kick the can down the road on religious exemptions on reproductive health care services.”

The executive order was important for Trump as it would help allay his conservative supporters who were disillusioned after he avoided strong actions against issues like abortion during his time in office.

However, the new order does not provide any major concessions to religious entities despite the role that conservatives played in getting Trump elected president in the 2016 election.

In its statement, ACLU said it will look to “defend Americans’ right to exercise their religion and ensure their freedom from having others’ beliefs forced upon them.”

“The ACLU stands ready to sue the Trump administration and in the event that this order triggers any official government action at all, we will see Trump in court, again,” Romero added.