Workplace Freedom & Viewpoint-Neutral Employment

WORKPLACE FREEDOM & VIEWPOINT-NEUTRAL EMPLOYMENT

POSITION

Americans should be hired, evaluated, promoted, disciplined, and dismissed according to their qualifications, performance, reliability, and workplace conduct. A person should not lose the ability to earn a living because an employer dislikes the person's lawful political beliefs, party affiliation or nonaffiliation, vote, religion or nonreligion, lawful civic participation, or lawful off-duty speech.

OUR PHILOSOPHY

The Constitution directly limits government. It does not automatically turn every private workplace into a government institution. Congress can and should create clear statutory civil-rights protections so government and concentrated private power cannot make political or religious conformity the price of ordinary employment. Rights should remain real during the hours when people earn the money needed to live.

PROTECTED EMPLOYMENT DECISIONS

Covered employers, labor organizations, staffing agencies, licensing bodies, and apprenticeship programs may not discriminate in recruitment, hiring, assignments, scheduling, pay, benefits, training, promotion, discipline, layoff, termination, reference, or blacklisting because of:

• lawful political belief, political party affiliation, political independence, or refusal to affiliate;

• a lawful vote, campaign contribution, petition, candidacy, meeting, protest, or civic association undertaken as a private citizen;

• lawful off-duty speech on a matter of public concern;

• religious belief, observance, association, or the absence of religious belief, subject to existing lawful accommodation and narrow organizational exceptions;

• military service, veteran status, reserve or National Guard service, or lawful exercise of service-related rights;

• association with another person who lawfully holds or exercises a protected belief or right.

These protections supplement, and do not reduce, existing protections based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, military service, and other status protected by law.

WHAT AN EMPLOYER MAY STILL REGULATE

This policy does not prevent an employer from enforcing neutral, job-related rules concerning:

• attendance, competence, productivity, safety, customer service, and lawful instructions;

• threats, violence, intimidation, unlawful harassment, discrimination, stalking, sabotage, or destruction of property;

• use of company systems, time, uniforms, logos, or authority for unauthorized political activity;

• false claims that a personal political statement represents the employer;

• disclosure of genuine trade secrets, protected customer data, privileged information, or operational security;

• a specific conflict of interest, unlawful conduct, or off-duty conduct that the employer proves causes a material and direct inability to perform the job.

A rule cannot be called neutral if comparable conduct is punished differently because management agrees with one viewpoint and opposes another.

NARROW MISSION-BASED EXCEPTIONS

A narrow exception may apply when a particular belief, affiliation, or public advocacy role is a genuine qualification necessary to the central mission of a political campaign, elected official's personal policy staff, religious ministry, political party, or advocacy organization. The exception must apply to the specific role, not every employee of an organization. Accountants, maintenance workers, drivers, technicians, and other ordinary staff should not automatically lose protection merely because of the employer's public viewpoint.

NO GOVERNMENT CIRCUMVENTION

• A government official may not pressure, threaten, reward, contract with, regulate, investigate, or coordinate with an employer for the purpose of causing retaliation that government could not lawfully impose itself.

• A federal grant, license, tax benefit, procurement decision, or regulatory favor may not be conditioned on punishing lawful political or religious belief.

• Material government communications requesting employment action against an identified person or group must be preserved and disclosed, subject to narrow protection for legitimate criminal investigations, personal privacy, and national security.

NOTICE, EVIDENCE & QUICK REVIEW

• A covered employer taking a material adverse action must provide the employee or applicant with the legitimate employment reason in writing within five business days after a request.

• An enforcement agency should acknowledge a complete complaint within five business days and complete the initial administrative investigation within 30 calendar days.

• One extension of no more than 30 additional calendar days may be used only when identified material evidence is unavailable despite documented efforts. The parties must receive a written reason and final date.

• A worker facing termination, blacklisting, loss of required credentials, or another irreparable injury may seek immediate temporary judicial relief.

• Each side must receive the allegations, material nonprivileged evidence, and a fair opportunity to respond. Anonymous claims alone cannot establish liability without corroborating evidence.

BURDEN OF PROOF & REMEDIES

A claimant must prove that protected belief, association, or activity was a motivating factor in a material employment action. The employer may avoid damages for the employment outcome by proving it would have made the same decision based on documented lawful reasons, although declaratory or corrective relief may remain available for a proven discriminatory process.

Available remedies should include reinstatement, correction of employment records, back pay, front pay when reinstatement is impractical, restoration of benefits, actual damages, attorney fees, and a civil penalty for willful or repeated violations. Retaliation for filing or assisting a good-faith complaint is a separate violation. A federal contractor that repeatedly and willfully violates final orders may be suspended or debarred after due process.

Criminal punishment does not apply merely because an employer made an incorrect personnel decision. Ordinary criminal law remains available for threats, bribery, evidence destruction, perjury, obstruction, or other independently proven crimes.

WHAT WE WILL MEASURE

Public reporting should track complaints, protected grounds alleged, investigation time, extensions, findings, settlements, court judgments, reinstatement, wages recovered, repeated violators, contractor sanctions, government-coercion findings, and dismissals for insufficient evidence. Reports must not expose private beliefs or personal information unnecessarily.

Core MPA standard: Do the job. Follow lawful workplace rules. Treat other people with basic dignity. Outside those requirements, an employer should not own an employee's conscience, vote, faith, or lawful civic life.

Related policies: Workers' Rights; Liberty, Equality & Opportunity; Personal Rights & Freedoms; Government Integrity & Equal Justice; Public Meetings, Citizen Speech & Due Process.

Status: Proposed / Draft, not yet formally adopted.

Originally published: September 27, 2026.

Last updated: September 27, 2026.

Version: Draft 0.1.