SCOTUS Kills Independent Agencies, Expands Presidential Power

Leah Litman· Host0:00

Strict Scrutiny is brought to you by Americans United for Separation of Church and State. The Trump administration's excessive Christian nationalist rhetoric is only building as we move toward the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Those most caught in the crossfire are federal workers, specifically a multi-faith group of federal employees who have filed a new lawsuit against the US Department of Agriculture for violating the separation of church and state and the religious freedom promised in our Constitution. Our friends at Americans United for Separation of Church and State received emails from multiple USDA employees. A handful of employees reached out to say that the proselytizing Easter email sent by Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins to more than 100,000 USDA employees is an abuse of power that violates the separation of church and state promised in the First Amendment. They're absolutely right. And I just have to remind you, as we continue to think about the nation's 250th anniversary, that the whole question of religious freedom is not solely about religious pluralism, about different religious sects being able to flourish in the United States. It is also a hedge against tyranny, the idea that religion provides alternative sources of values and allegiances that imbue the individual with the capacity to be skeptical when the government comes peddling its own orthodoxies. So when you think about this, it's not just about letting a million flowers bloom. It's literally about keeping limited government