Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice, said Major League Baseball (MLB) is under investigation for potential religious discrimination.

“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. @USEEOC will investigate whether this amounts to religious discrimination,” Dhillon said.

The announcement stems from MLB issuing a warning to three San Francisco Giants pitchers after they referenced Bible verses on their Pride Night caps.

Baseball Pitchers Who Wrote Bible Verses On Their Hats During Pride Night Given Warning By MLB

"The three players expressed their opposition to MLB's pro-Pride orthodoxy," Dhillon wrote in a letter to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred.

"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 continued.

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“Federal law is clear: employers must modify their uniform requirements to reasonably accommodate their employees’ exercise of religion," she added.

USA TODAY has more:

On June 16, Vice President JC Vance publicly weighed in via social media, responding to a Sports Illustrated social media post, Vance said, “Trump won; we don’t have to do this anymore.”

The Giants said after incident that "they are proud to support Pride Night and the LGBTQ community" but also respect that individuals may make "personal choices about team activations," while also adding that the players caused "pain and anger for many in the LGBTQ community."

“What does MLB think it’s doing penalizing players for their Christian faith? They owe us some answers. Right now,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) said earlier this week.

“I write with grave concern over your reported decision to issue a formal warning to three Major League Baseball (MLB) players for publicly expressing their Christian faith. This follows a high-profile undercover investigation that revealed at least one MLB team discriminated against a player based on his Catholic faith. You must answer for what appears to be a pattern of discrimination within MLB against baseball players who profess their Christian faith,” Hawley wrote in a letter to Manfred.

Republican Senator Launches Probe Into MLB – “They Owe Us Some Answers”

Fox News shared further:

OutKick exclusively spoke to Dhillon on Friday morning about the letter, MLB's actions, and what happens next.

When asked whether she'd received a response to her letter highlighting the apparent difference in policy depending on the message in question, Dhillon said nobody from MLB has answered. And they likely won't. Though she clarified that the letter was intended to warn the league that the Civil Rights Division does not approve of how they handled this situation.

"No, and I would not expect Major League Baseball to respond to me. The reason I put out a letter is, I have parallel jurisdiction over Title VII by statute with the EEOC. We kind of share that responsibility and I focus on public employers and they focus on private employers. But I had a number of United States senators and prominent lawyers, public and private practice, reach out to me concerning this matter, and I wanted to make it clear that we disapprove of this practice, we believe it's illegal, and also that the EEOC has the primary jurisdiction over this.

"So we did refer it to the EEOC, as they have the primary jurisdiction since it's a private employer. You know, I can publicly say I referred something. The EEOC has a little different rules. They cannot say whether they're investigating anything or not. But, I think this is a sufficiently high level of interest, that you have senators engaging on it. And so I thought it was important to make the public and sports franchise aware that their workers have rights, just like other American employees have rights."

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If a potential EEOC investigation finds that MLB has violated the players' Title VII rights, there would be an immediate case for a lawsuit.

"So first of all, any individual player whose rights were violated, could have a private employment lawsuit," she said. "This Title 7 has a particular statutory scheme that says that you first have to file a claim with a local — that is to say, a state employment agency, and/or the EEOC, and then they do an investigation. They do an investigation, and then they give you a right to sue letter if they're not going to pursue it themselves. If the EEOC is going to pursue it themselves, on behalf of an individual or a group, then they start a negotiation process — a discovery process, negotiation process — with the employer. And then the case either resolves or there's a lawsuit by the EEOC or by the private party. So there are a number of different options."

If the players did decide to file a lawsuit in the state of California, it could be done through a state employment agency in a matter of weeks. Even while the EEOC continues a potential investigation.

 

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