USDA employees allege Easter religious message violated First Amendment

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has subjected USDA workers to “government-sponsored religious coercion” with messages that promote her own Christian beliefs and violate the First Amendment, federal employees alleged in a lawsuit on Wednesday.

The complaint focuses on an Easter message Rollins sent to USDA’s roughly 90,000 employees that celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ and prompted widespread criticism from religious freedom groups and federal employees.

The lawsuit also identifies several other examples of Christian messaging that Rollins has included in official missives to department employees, including on Thanksgiving, and notes that the secretary has “sent no messages even acknowledging — let alone celebrating or sermonizing — other religions’ holidays.”

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

Agriculture Department employees allege that Rollins’ pro-Christian messages to workers make them “feel excluded and unwelcome, and they fear the negative consequences of not sharing the Secretary’s religion or expressing their own different beliefs in the workplace.” POLITICO first reported on the Easter message last month.

“She has adopted a practice of sending increasingly proselytizing communications to the entire USDA workforce, promoting her own preferred brand of Christian beliefs and theology to the captive audience of employees that report to her, directly or indirectly,” the National Federation of Federal Employees and seven USDA workers said in their lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

The lawsuit also argues that the messages violate the Administrative Procedure Act.

The union, which represents 19,000 USDA employees, and the other plaintiffs want the court to bar Rollins and any other USDA official from issuing “such religious communications” and to declare that the secretary’s religious messages are unlawful.

Rollins frequently discusses her religious beliefs and regularly posts excerpts of scripture on social media, including on her official accounts. She shares images of herself praying at USDA facilities with other officials or farmers and ranchers that meet with her.

Rollins also frequently discusses the Bible study group she joins with other Trump administration cabinet officials.

The Americans United for Separation of Church and State organization and the progressive legal advocacy group Democracy Forward also joined the case.

المصدر: Politico