Trump Admin Takes On MLB Over ‘Pride’ Hat Controversy

The Trump administration will probe whether Major League Baseball is discriminating against Christian players who pushed back against “Pride” month messaging.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon told MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred on Thursday that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission will investigate the league for religious discrimination. The notification came after the league warned several players who wrote Bible verses on the “Pride” caps they were issued for a game. 

“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,” Dhillon wrote in a letter to Manfred.

Dhillon suggested that she did not buy the MLB’s claims that they only warned the players because of a policy against writing on uniform equipment.  

“Yet, MLB has allowed players to wear uniform patches reading ‘Black Lives Matter.’ This double standard — under which players may not inscribe Bible verses on hats for one game only but may wear ‘Black Lives Matter’ patches for one game only — calls MLB’s true motives into question and raises serious concerns about MLB’s compliance with Title VII,” Dhillon wrote. 

“The Trump Administration is committed to combatting religious discrimination,” Dhillon added. “The Department of Justice will use all available means to hold employers accountable for violating the religious rights of their employees.”

The controversy started last week when San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Landen Roupp wrote a Bible passage found in Genesis onto his cap, right next to the LGBT-themed rainbow logo he was directed to wear. Fellow players JT Brubaker and Ryan Walker also added Bible verses to their caps. 

MLB’s Chief Communications Officer Pat Courtney told The Athletic on Monday that these players have been “warned” about “future violations.” He said that writing on the team’s baseball caps “violates our rules.”

Those warnings spurred backlash from elected officials who argued the MLB was targeting Christians. 

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) sent a letter to Manfred asking him to provide further detail about the league’s policies. 

“The freedom to live out one’s faith does not end at the ballpark gate. Americans of every creed are entitled to confidence that the institutions of our national pastime will not single out religious expression for punishment while celebrating messages of the league’s own choosing,” he said. 

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said that the MLB should expect to be hearing from his office “soon.”