Oaks has spoken on behalf of the LDS Church on political issues, primarily those affecting religious liberty. In 1992, he testified before committees in the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives on the proposed Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), arguing that it would be a step in the right direction in maintaining protection of religious liberty after the precedent set by "Employment Division v. Smith" (1990). Oaks spoke again after the law had passed in 1993 and had subsequently been ruled unconstitutional a few years later.