Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, LITIGATION NEWS, TRENDS—USDA Secretary’s Easter email sent to employees spurs new suit against agency, (May 14, 2026)

By Brandi O. Brown, J.D.

“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.”

In a new lawsuit filed yesterday in a California federal court, the National Federation of Federal Employees and individual employees claim that the United States Department of Agriculture and USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins are violating the First Amendment and the Administrative Procedure Act with religious messages and pressure.

“The Trump administration is waging a relentless and increasingly brazen crusade against church-state separation and the religious freedom of federal workers,” said Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church & State, which is helping represent the plaintiffs. “Trump is not Jesus, federal agencies are not churches, and cabinet secretaries are not government preachers. Secretary Rollins’ Easter message is a particularly egregious example of Trump administration officials abusing the power of public office to impose their beliefs on others and promote one narrow view of Christianity.

Specifically, the lawsuit alleges that during Rollins’s 15 months as the head of the USDA, 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.” These acts “reached a crescendo with her April 5, 2026 Easter email.”

Easter email. Democracy Forward, which is also helping represent the plaintiffs, claims that Rollins is creating a preferred “in-group” religion at the USDA. Her Easter message, they claim, proclaims all employees share her beliefs with phrases including “we celebrate,” “the greatest story ever told,” “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.” They contend that Rollins is establishing a religion with the USDA, a clear violation of the First Amendment.

Arguing that this is antithetical to the Establishment Clause, the plaintiffs claim in the lawsuit that the secretary’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. It is exactly the sort of government-sponsored religious coercion, religious sermonizing, and denominational preference that the Establishment Clause prohibits.”

The plaintiffs are a group of multifaith and nonreligious USDA employees and a national labor union representing more than 19,000 USDA employees with diverse religious beliefs.

Employees feel unwelcome. “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 a physical science technician at USDA. “When the Secretary sends an email, I have to read it. And when those emails are telling me what to believe, they make me feel unwelcome in an agency I’ve dedicated ten years to.”

Christian Nationalism concerns. “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, NFFE National President.

“Government workers know that it is just plain wrong when public officials force personal religious choices down their throats,” says Bryan Schwartz of Bryan Schwartz Law, who is bringing the lawsuit along with Americans United and Democracy Forward. “We need these USDA workers protecting our agriculture, our food supply, and other important jobs – and religious freedom means they don’t have to listen to a church sermon from their boss to keep serving all Americans.”

The lawsuit was brought in the Northern District of California; the case is No. 3:26-cv-04406.

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