The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is refusing to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request from Americans United for Separation of Church and State, prompting AU to sue the Trump administration.
The lawsuit contends the VA is violating federal law by refusing to fulfill the public-records request for information on how it’s responding to President Donald Trump’s mandate to investigate alleged anti-Christian bias.
The religious liberty watchdog group and Democracy Forward earlier announced their own investigation into Trump’s creation of the Anti-Christian Bias Task Force. The task force largely has been panned outside evangelical circles because no compelling evidence has been presented of actual government bias against evangelical Christians. Trump and his evangelical allies contend the Biden administration persecuted and excluded evangelicals, even as the Trump administration seeks to elevate evangelical influence above other Christian and non-Christian groups.
In April, VA leaders asked employees to report allegations of “anti-Christian discrimination” in the workplace.
“The Trump administration created the Anti-Christian Bias Task Force based on the false claim that there’s rampant Christian persecution within the federal government,” said AU President Rachel Laser. “We’ve called their bluff and demanded that they prove it — show us the evidence of widespread anti-Christian discrimination. So far the Trump administration is ignoring our request in violation of federal transparency law. What are they hiding?”
She added: “The Department of Veterans Affairs serves veterans of all religions and none. Rather than protect everyone’s religious beliefs, this task force will misuse department resources and the principle of religious freedom to justify bigotry, discrimination and the subversion of our civil rights laws. This task force is not a response to Christian persecution; it’s an attempt to privilege Christian nationalism.”
The lawsuit, Americans United for Separation of Church and State v. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, was filed in the U.S. District Court for Washington, D.C. It seeks to force the VA to make public records related to the creation and implementation of its own version of the Trump task force.
Despite established federal law guiding Freedom of Information Act requests, the Trump administration has signaled its disregard for such transparency.
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