AU’s groundbreaking new lawsuit looks to rebuild the wall of separation between church and state.
The Trump administration is hitting Americans with an endless stream of Christian Nationalism. Pentagon prayer services that preach dominion and war. Social media posts proclaiming that America is “One Homeland, under God.” Sermons on Jesus’s resurrection delivered by the Secretary of State and promoted by the Department of State. The Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) sending employees missives proclaiming “our faith” that “Jesus has been raised from the dead.” White House advisors comparing President Trump to Jesus. President Trump portraying himself as Jesus.
But Trump is not Jesus. Agencies are not churches. Cabinet secretaries are not preachers.
Our Constitution says as much. Under our Constitution, the federal government should be separate from religion. The government should not weigh in on religious questions or controversies, let alone declare one narrow slice of one religion to be the gospel truth. Put another way, our government has no religion to exercise — “no particle of spiritual jurisdiction,” to borrow from one of Alexander Hamilton’s Federalist Papers.
But cabinet secretaries across the government are establishing their narrow personal brand of conservative Christianity — one that venerates Trump alongside Jesus — as the religion for the federal agencies they temporarily run and, more broadly, for our government. They are abusing their power and forcing this religion on our federal workers and the American people.
Americans loathe this. We don’t want a government that preaches at us. A recent Washington Post poll found that 87 percent of Americans negatively viewed Trump depicting himself as Jesus and 69 percent of Americans disliked Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth praying at the Pentagon for “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.”
This rejection of theocracy and Christian Nationalism runs deep in the American DNA. This year, Americans proudly celebrate 250 years of independence from kings who ruled over both church and state. In this magazine, we’ve been exploring and celebrating the simple fact that, 250 years ago, a group of men had the bold and brave idea to cut off ties with “the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain,” as an early draft of the Declaration explained. They set out on a journey to create a new country that is free from divine monarchy, from theocracy, and instead, is of the people, by the people, and for the people. For 250 years, we have been marching towards the promise of a country where all people can be free. Trump and his cabinet are erasing that progress by bulldozing the wall of separation between church and state.
What’s happening is wrong — it’s un-American.
So we’re suing.
Americans United and our partners, Democracy Forward and Bryan Schwartz Law, have filed a lawsuit against the USDA on behalf of six federal workers and a union, the National Federation of Federal Employees, which represents over 110,000 federal workers and more than 19,000 workers across USDA agencies.
The basic claim in the lawsuit is simple. Our Constitution doesn’t let any government official set up their personal religion as the religion for anyone, let alone an entire agency. But that’s exactly what Secretary Rollins has done at the USDA. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins is establishing an official religion for the USDA.
On Easter, Rollins sent every USDA employee — there are more than 100,000 — an email proclaiming “Christ is Risen” at the top with artwork of an open tomb. The email began:
Team USDA,
Happy Easter — He is Risen indeed!
Today we celebrate the greatest story ever told, the foundation of our faith, and the abiding hope of all mankind.
From the foot of the Cross on Good Friday to the stone rolled away from the now empty tomb, sin has been destroyed. Jesus has been raised from the dead. And God has granted each of us victory and new life…
Rollins’ Easter message proclaims all employees share her beliefs with phrases including “we celebrate,” “our faith,” “the abiding hope of all mankind” — alongside explicitly religious language like “the foot of the Cross on Good Friday,” “Jesus has been raised from the dead,” “Hell took a body, and discovered God,” and “our risen Lord.”
The Easter email was just the latest in an escalating pattern of proselytizing communications to USDA employees during Rollins’s 15 months in office. Others include a Christmas email with a video of Rollins saying, “The spirit of generosity flows from the very first Christmas when God gave us the greatest gift possible, the gift of his Son and our Savior Jesus Christ, who came to free us from our sins and open the door to eternal life. This is the reason for the season.” Again, “us,” “us,” “our.”
USDA employees are a captive audience to Rollins’ proselytizing. They are expected to read all communications from their boss, and are particularly aware of communications from leadership at a time of upheaval, when agencies are undergoing major restructuring and cuts.
“We work for the federal government, not a church. I just want to go to work and make my country better — I shouldn’t have to suffer through sermons and other religious messages forced upon me by the head of a federal agency,” said Ethan Roberts, a USDA employee in the Agricultural Research Service. “When the Secretary sends an email, I have to read it.”
“I love the land. We should leave the land better than we found it. I believe in that mission and have worked at it for nearly 40 years,” says Lanette Dietrich, a person of faith who works at the National Resources Conservation Service. “But now, it seems like the USDA’s mission is all about being a Christian, like Secretary Rollins; and that to survive as part of ‘Team USDA,’ we must be a Christian, like Secretary Rollins.”
It’s not just Ethan and Lanette and the other named employees, “We’re hearing from our fellow employees across the government. Every agency feels like it’s the epicenter for a new outbreak of Christian Nationalism. We just want to do our jobs without having to fend off proselytizing and preaching. That’s a basic American freedom, not something we should have to go to court to secure,” said Randy Erwin, National President of the National Federation of Federal Employees.
This kind of coercion is particularly heart-wrenching, as plaintiff Ashley Miller explains: “We took an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution and to serve the American people, regardless of their religious beliefs; yet Rollins is telling us that our public service commitment is subservient to her particular brand of Christianity and that our work for the country is really for her god. Rollins is turning USDA’s mission to serve the American people into a mission to serve Christ. It makes all federal employees seem like missionaries.”
I’ve litigated many church-state cases over the last 15 years, and they invariably hinge on the bravery of a few citizens who are willing to face down bullies who hold positions of power, often over them. Their courage never fails to awe me. While there’s a constellation of factors that must align for AU to file any lawsuit, each one begins and ends with these courageous challengers. In cases like this, challenging the flood of Christian Nationalism we’re seeing at federal agencies, our best hope lies with the bravery of those employees.
This lawsuit can be the first new brick we lay in rebuilding the wall of separation between church and state. We recognize that the problem is government-wide and we hope — we know — that other brave employees will stand up to the Trump regime’s abuses of power and violations of religious freedom and church-state separation. We are confident that more employees — at the Department of Defense, for instance — will find that courage and come forward to defend America’s best idea: the separation of church and state.
For 250 years, Americans have been free from kings who ruled over both church and state.
We are not going back.
Andrew L. Seidel is AU’s vice president of strategic communications.