Thoughts on Trump DoJ's Definition of "Religious Discrimination" re: MLB on SF Giants Pride Night

 

Very little has gone right for the San Francisco Giants this season. They are arguably MLB's most disappointing team. As of this writing, the Giants are 31-44 and 17 games back of the defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West. Giants President Buster Posey has been taken to task for hiring Tennessee Volunteers head coach Tony Vitello to manage the team without the benefit of coaching or managing at the major or minor league level.

Alas, the Giants are facing other problems which have taken on a life of their own. The team recently held a Pride Night as they have since 2021, the first MLB team to do so. During these games, the Giants sport hats with the pride rainbow incorporated into the team logo. 

However, this year, several Giants pitchers (Landen Roupp, JT Brubaker, and Ryan Walker) wrote Bible verses on their caps while one pitcher, Sam Hentges, refused to wear the cap at all. For its part, MLB issued warnings to the pitchers concerning uniform violations but did not subject them to any disciplinary action.

In response to MLB's warning, Trump's DoJ has now launched an investigation into whether MLB engaged in religious discrimination against the pitchers who scrawled the Bible verses on their caps and has referred the matter to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Harmeet Dhillon, the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights issued this statement:

The three players expressed their opposition to MLB's pro-Pride orthodoxy. The Civil Rights Act prohibits MLB and its franchises from unreasonably burdening the rights of players with religious objections to serving as the League's vehicle for pro-Pride messages. 

Federal law is clear: employers must modify their uniform requirements to reasonably accommodate their employees’ exercise of religion. The Trump administration is committed to combatting religious discrimination.

Dhillon is engaging in intellectual dishonesty. When Dhillon refers to MLB's so-called "pro-Pride orthodoxy", she is making an ideological statement, not a religious one. If players were to refuse to wear 42 on Jackie Robinson Day, I am sure Dhillon would blast MLB's "pro-DEI agenda." Let us remember that last year Trump's DoD removed all references to Jackie Robinson's military career on the grounds it was DEI before restoring the data following a backlash. 

Dhillon is also misrepresenting federal law on the matter. The EEOC guidelines on reasonable accommodations concerning religious garb refer specifically to clothing and items such as hijabs, turbans, and crosses. They do not cover the inscription of Bible verses onto articles of clothing.

Let me put it this way. Does anyone honestly think the Trump DoJ would launch such an investigation had the pitchers wrote verses from the Koran on their caps? 

Yet it would not surprise me if MLB were to bend the knee to the Trump Administration and make the wearing of Pride caps optional. I say this because of MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred's abrupt reinstatement of Pete Rose, "Shoeless" Joe Jackson and the 1919 Chicago White Sox last year after meeting with President Trump. While I was pleased about the decision, I was not pleased about how it came about:

I'm sure that Trump basically told him, 'Either you reinstate Pete Rose, or all foreign-born players will be asked to leave the country.' Or perhaps he limited the edict to players from Latin American countries which comprise about 25% of all active MLB players.

Needless to say, I will not be surprised if Trump soon has another meeting with Manfred and strong arms him once more. In which case, the Trump Administration will have once again taken a bad situation and make it worse. But I suppose that is the sort of thing in which the Trump Administration takes pride in doing.