The U.S. Labor Department has taken steps to insure businesses and organizations that contract with the federal government can claim a religious exemptions when following nondiscrimination laws would conflict with their beliefs.

The department issued a directive in mid-August that instructs the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) to consider recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions in applying nondiscrimination rules.

The directive names the Masterpiece Cakeshop, Trinity Lutheran Church, and Hobby Lobby cases, all decided in favor of the Christian groups.

“Recent court decisions have addressed the broad freedoms and anti-discrimination protections that must be afforded religion-exercising organizations and individuals under the United States Constitution and federal law,” it says.

“Recent executive orders have similarly reminded the federal government of its duty to protect religious exercise—and not to impede it.”

Gay activists are criticizing the directive as a move to turn religious liberty into a weapon of discrimination. 

“The notion that the OFCCP needs to re-examine how it is enforcing nondiscrimination mandates against federal contractors is a ‘solution’ in search of a problem,” Lambda official Sharon McGowan told Bloomberg Law.