The Department of Justice said it opened a religious discrimination probe into Major League Baseball after the league warned three players about potential discipline for writing Bible verses on their rainbow-stylized caps meant to honor LGBTQ Pride Night.
Assistant Attorney General for the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division Harmeet Dhillon said the agency will be looking into if the MLB violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex and national origin.
“Swing and a miss! Major League Baseball encouraged players to wear “Black Lives Matter” on their uniforms but reportedly threatened Christians who write Bible verses on their hats,” Ms. Dhillon posted Thursday on X. [The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission] will investigate whether this amounts to religious discrimination.”
The federal government launched the investigation after San Francisco Giants players JT Brubaker, Landen Roupp and Ryan Walker had Bible verses written onto their Pride Night caps that saw athletes wearing a rainbow-colored “SF” logo on their hats.
The MLB said they warned the players for violating league rules about altering their uniforms, not specifically for adding Biblical messages to their gear. The verses the players added referenced Genesis 9:12-16, which mentions the rainbow as a symbol of God’s covenant with all living creatures.
The MLB said this has been a consistent standard league officials have upheld in the past, but Ms. Dhillon said the league has allowed players to don “Black Lives Matter” patches in years past.
During the COVID-shortened 2020 season, the MLB and the player’s union agreed to allow athletes to wear patches saying either “BLM” or “United For Change” for Opening Day.
The exception granted for social justice messages came after George Floyd, a Black man, was killed by a White police officer in Minneapolis earlier that summer. Floyd’s murder spurred nationwide protests against police brutality.
Ms. Dhillon, in her letter to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, called the warnings issued to San Francisco Giants players a “double standard.”
“The Civil Rights Act prohibits MLB and its franchise from unreasonably burdening the rights of players with religious objections to serving as the Leagues’ vehicle for pro-Pride messages,” Ms. Dhillon wrote. “Federal law is clear: employers must modify their uniform requirements to reasonably accommodate their employees’ exercise of religion.”
