Lawsuit accuses agriculture secretary of ‘religious coercion’ in staff emails

(WASHINGTON) — A new federal lawsuit accuses Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins of proselytizing federal employees by frequently invoking Jesus Christ in work emails. 

The National Federation of Federal Employees and a group of seven USDA employees filed the lawsuit in California, accusing Rollins of violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. 

“Secretary Rollins’s practice and policy of subjecting agency employees to proselytizing messages conveys the expectation that USDA employees share in the Secretary’s religious beliefs, even when doing so would betray an employee’s own beliefs,” the lawsuit said. “It is exactly the sort of government-sponsored religious coercion, religious sermonizing, and denominational preference that the Establishment Clause prohibits.”

The complaint listed a series of emails sent by Rollins to commemorate recent holidays, including crediting “gratitude towards a loving God” in her Thanksgiving email, writing that “God gave us the greatest gift possible” in her Christmas email, and describing the story of Jesus’ resurrection as the “greatest story ever told” in her Easter email. Rollins only acknowledged Christian holidays, according to the complaint.

“Our nation’s Founders — having learned from the harmful effects of past religious conflicts — adopted the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to safeguard against government promoting any favored religion or imposing its preferred religious practice on its citizens to protect religious freedom for all,” the lawsuit said. 

While religious expression is protected under law and federal employees are permitted to engage in private religious speech, the Establishment Clause prohibits the government from establishing an official state religion, favoring one religion over another, or favoring religion over non-religion.

The federal employees who brought the lawsuit alleged that Rollin’s speech “indoctrinates USDA employees and has caused them to feel coerced, unwelcome, excluded, and like outsiders to the agency.”

One employee claimed in the suit that she was told it would “create trouble” for her if she asked to be removed from the email distribution list, and others said they feared retaliation if they complained about the messages.

Another employee said he “feels that the Secretary is conveying to him that he is unwelcome and ‘going to hell’ because he does not share the Secretary’s beliefs.” 

In response to the lawsuit, a USDA spokesperson said in a statement, “While we do not comment on pending litigation, we will keep the plaintiffs in our prayers during this process.”