which ruled in June that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission had demonstrated hostility to Phillips' views on same-sex marriage. (The high court has not ruled on whether a business can refuse service to a person by claiming a religious belief that requires him or her to refuse service.)

In his speech, Sessions vowed that the department would go to court "across America to defend the rights of people of faith."

Sessions said the department's new task force would be co-chaired by Associate Attorney General Jesse Panuccio and Beth Williams, assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Policy.

The Human Rights Campaign said the new panel is part of the Trump administration's "ongoing campaign to license discrimination against LGBTQ people in the public square."

The Trump administration is not the first tocreate a "religious liberty" entity within the Department of Justice. The department under President George W. Bush promised to put a "priority" on "religious liberty and religious discrimination cases." But the Trump administration has probably taken more initiative than any other administration to strengthen religious liberty claims in a wide variety of arenas. In June, for instance, Sessions announced a "Place to Worship Initiative" to protect "the ability of houses of worship and other religious institutions to build, expand, buy, or rent facilities" and to obtain grants. The program would seem to put the Trump administration in opposition to equal rights for LGBT people in conflicts over religious entities refusing gay couples to serve as foster or adoptive parents, and conflicts where religious student groups want to use