Religious liberty took a whacking during the Obama years.
The most prominent symbol of this became the Little Sisters of the Poor, whom the federal government attempted to compel in court to violate their consciences.
The issue wasn't abortion or contraception per se (for which the nuns declined to pay) but whether Americans still retain the right, guaranteed by the Constitution, not to be forced by government to act in ways their faith forbids.
Ryan Anderson writes at the Heritage Foundation's Daily Signal, that, if President-Elect Trump wants to make America great again, he must make religious liberty great again.
This doesn't just mean that we can do whatever we want in houses of worship but that we uphold the rights of citizens to act on their religious beliefs in their daily lives and in the public square. Democrats often view religious liberty as simply being able to participate in rituals in a house of worship. But that is a very limited view.
As Anderson writes:
In her concession speech, Hillary Clinton referred to the “freedom of worship”—piety limited to a synagogue, church, or mosque. But what the American founders protected was the right of all to live out their faith every day of the week in public and in private, provided they peacefully respect the rights of others.
The reduction of religious liberty to mere freedom of worship is a hallmark of the Obama years. Houses of worship, for example, were exempted from the Department of Health and Human Services Obamacare contraception and abortifacient mandate.
But religious schools, like Wheaton College, and religious charities and communities, such as the Little Sisters of the Poor, were merely “accommodated”—offered a different way to comply with the mandate while still violating their beliefs.
A Trump administration can fix this right away. Trump can instruct his secretary of Health and Human Services to provide robust religious liberty protections to the HHS mandate. And Congress can pass legislation, which Trump can sign, to repeal and replace Obamacare.
President Obama's preferred form of governing–by executive orders, many of which are undoubtedly illegal–the harm can be undone quickly–with, as President Obama might note, with the stoke of a pen:
Whether it be harassing an order of nuns, forcing doctors to perform sex reassignment therapies, or preventing local schools from finding win-win compromise solutions that would respect all students’ bodily privacy, the Obama administration has waged an aggressive and unnecessary culture war.
Because it has done so almost exclusively through executive action, a Trump administration can quickly undo this damage. And Congress can then ratify it permanently in law. That’ll go a long way toward protecting peaceful coexistence, making American truly great again.
As noted, the Department of Health and Human Resources will be a place to reverse the Obama war on religious liberty. Candidates for that post include (according to Politico) Florida Gov. Rick Scott, Newt Gingrich and Dr. Ben Carson.