When employees come to work, they should never have to wonder whether the next email from the boss will contain a work assignment or a sermon.
That's the issue at the heart of a new lawsuit against USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins.
A group of federal employees and their union have asked a federal court to block Rollins from sending agency-wide emails that preach her personal Christian beliefs to roughly 100,000 Department of Agriculture employees. The plaintiffs allege that despite already being sued over the practice, Rollins has continued using official USDA communications to quote Scripture and deliver explicitly evangelical messages—not just on Easter and Christmas, but now on Memorial Day and Independence Day as well. They are asking the court to stop the messages before the next major Christian holiday arrives.
According to the lawsuit, this isn't merely an elected official acknowledging religion or wishing employees a happy holiday. The complaint alleges that Rollins has repeatedly used official government email to proclaim that "Jesus has been raised from the dead," refer to "our faith," "our risen Lord," and "the greatest story ever told," while speaking as the head of a federal agency to employees required to read her communications. The plaintiffs argue that these messages communicate that Christianity is the preferred faith within USDA and pressure employees of different faiths—or no faith at all—to conform.
Whether the plaintiffs ultimately prevail on their Establishment Clause claims is for the courts to decide.
But from an employment-law perspective, the allegations illustrate a much more universal principle.
Power changes everything.
A conversation about religion between two friends is one thing. The same conversation between a supervisor and an employee is something entirely different. The law recognizes that employees don't experience communications from their bosses as ordinary conversations. Supervisors control evaluations, promotions, assignments, discipline, and careers. Employees know that. Even when no threat is made, the imbalance of power creates pressure.
That's why Title VII requires employers to accommodate employees' sincerely held religious beliefs while simultaneously prohibiting religious harassment. It protects an employee's right to practice a religion. It also protects an employee's right not to have someone else's religion imposed upon them.
Those protections don't disappear because the speaker sincerely believes what they're saying.
In fact, sincerity is beside the point.
The issue isn't whether Secretary Rollins has the right to hold or express her Christian beliefs in her personal life. Of course she does.
The question is whether the head of a federal agency should use the machinery of government—and mandatory workplace communications—to evangelize a captive audience of employees.
That's a workplace issue every employer should understand.
Most employers would never tolerate a manager repeatedly sending department-wide emails urging employees to attend church, quoting Scripture, or telling employees that salvation comes through Jesus Christ. HR would shut it down immediately, not because religion is unwelcome in the workplace, but because coercion is.
The problem, however, is that proselytizing in the workplace is inherently coercive.
It blurs the line between personal belief and professional conduct. It pressures coworkers—especially subordinates—to nod along, stay quiet, or risk being labeled difficult, disrespectful, or even insubordinate.
And while defenders often frame these efforts as promoting religious liberty, they frequently accomplish the opposite. They open the door to exclusion, marginalization, and retaliation against employees who decline a coworker's or boss's invitation to Bible study or object to being told they're going to hell over coffee or lunch.
That doesn't promote inclusion.
It undermines it.
And it doesn't protect religious liberty.
It weaponizes it.
Employees have the absolute right to practice the religion of their choice—or none at all. That right is personal, private, and protected. It's no one else's business.
The workplace is not a pulpit, and no employee should ever feel pressured to conform to, participate in, or endorse an employer's, supervisor's, or coworker's religious beliefs or practices.
Anything less violates the core principles that Title VII was designed to protect, regardless of what any administration—or any employer—might prefer.
That's the issue at the heart of a new lawsuit against USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins.
A group of federal employees and their union have asked a federal court to block Rollins from sending agency-wide emails that preach her personal Christian beliefs to roughly 100,000 Department of Agriculture employees. The plaintiffs allege that despite already being sued over the practice, Rollins has continued using official USDA communications to quote Scripture and deliver explicitly evangelical messages—not just on Easter and Christmas, but now on Memorial Day and Independence Day as well. They are asking the court to stop the messages before the next major Christian holiday arrives.
According to the lawsuit, this isn't merely an elected official acknowledging religion or wishing employees a happy holiday. The complaint alleges that Rollins has repeatedly used official government email to proclaim that "Jesus has been raised from the dead," refer to "our faith," "our risen Lord," and "the greatest story ever told," while speaking as the head of a federal agency to employees required to read her communications. The plaintiffs argue that these messages communicate that Christianity is the preferred faith within USDA and pressure employees of different faiths—or no faith at all—to conform.
Whether the plaintiffs ultimately prevail on their Establishment Clause claims is for the courts to decide.
But from an employment-law perspective, the allegations illustrate a much more universal principle.
Power changes everything.
A conversation about religion between two friends is one thing. The same conversation between a supervisor and an employee is something entirely different. The law recognizes that employees don't experience communications from their bosses as ordinary conversations. Supervisors control evaluations, promotions, assignments, discipline, and careers. Employees know that. Even when no threat is made, the imbalance of power creates pressure.
That's why Title VII requires employers to accommodate employees' sincerely held religious beliefs while simultaneously prohibiting religious harassment. It protects an employee's right to practice a religion. It also protects an employee's right not to have someone else's religion imposed upon them.
Those protections don't disappear because the speaker sincerely believes what they're saying.
In fact, sincerity is beside the point.
The issue isn't whether Secretary Rollins has the right to hold or express her Christian beliefs in her personal life. Of course she does.
The question is whether the head of a federal agency should use the machinery of government—and mandatory workplace communications—to evangelize a captive audience of employees.
That's a workplace issue every employer should understand.
Most employers would never tolerate a manager repeatedly sending department-wide emails urging employees to attend church, quoting Scripture, or telling employees that salvation comes through Jesus Christ. HR would shut it down immediately, not because religion is unwelcome in the workplace, but because coercion is.
The problem, however, is that proselytizing in the workplace is inherently coercive.
It blurs the line between personal belief and professional conduct. It pressures coworkers—especially subordinates—to nod along, stay quiet, or risk being labeled difficult, disrespectful, or even insubordinate.
And while defenders often frame these efforts as promoting religious liberty, they frequently accomplish the opposite. They open the door to exclusion, marginalization, and retaliation against employees who decline a coworker's or boss's invitation to Bible study or object to being told they're going to hell over coffee or lunch.
That doesn't promote inclusion.
It undermines it.
And it doesn't protect religious liberty.
It weaponizes it.
Employees have the absolute right to practice the religion of their choice—or none at all. That right is personal, private, and protected. It's no one else's business.
The workplace is not a pulpit, and no employee should ever feel pressured to conform to, participate in, or endorse an employer's, supervisor's, or coworker's religious beliefs or practices.
Anything less violates the core principles that Title VII was designed to protect, regardless of what any administration—or any employer—might prefer.