Several USDA employees and the National Federation of Federal Employees have filed a lawsuit against Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins for use of religious mass communications.

They allege the emails violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The lawsuit requests that USDA be barred “from further communicating proselytizing Christian messages to USDA subordinates.”

The plaintiffs “feel that the Secretary is pressuring them to share in her religious beliefs,” according to the lawsuit. The suit identified her Christmas and Easter emails sent to all USDA employees as “proselytizing Christian messages.” 

Rollins responded to a USA Today article about the lawsuit via X with the message, “It’s just another opportunity to remind everyone: He is Risen.”

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The suit adds that using words like “we” or “our” in messages about Christianity creates a “preferred religious ‘in-group’ at USDA.” Additionally, Rollins has not acknowledged other religions’ holidays in any of her messages. Many of the plaintiffs said they felt they had to read through the religious communications, because that channel is often used for agency or job-related updates.

When plaintiff Lanette Dietrich, an Iowa-based USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service employee of almost 40 years, requested to be removed from USDA mailing lists used for religious messages but to continue receiving work-related messages, she was told she could not be taken off the list. She was told that if she continued to elevate her request, it could “‘create trouble.’” She believes the Easter message indicated that “to survive as a part of ‘Team USDA,’ USDA employees should be Christian.”

The First Amendment says that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”