A constitutional watchdog group has filed a second lawsuit against the Trump administration’s Anti-Christian Bias Task Force.
The president created the commission in a Feb. 6 executive order directing U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to launch investigations into “anti-Christian conduct” and “anti-Christian hostility” in all branches of government.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed a complaint Aug. 5 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia accusing the U.S. State Department of withholding information on how it is complying with the directive.
“In April, the State Department was the first federal agency known to have demanded that employees report allegations of ‘anti-Christian discrimination,’ through an internal cable sent out to department employees and embassies worldwide,” Americans United explained.
Rachel Laser
Americans United submitted the request for records May 8, and it went unanswered during the 30 days required by law. The inquiry comprised part of the group’s investigation into the formation and implementation of the task force amid a cloud of “disinformation about purported anti-Christian bias.”
“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,” Americans United President Rachel Laser said. “We’ve called their bluff and demanded that they prove it. Show us the evidence of widespread anti-Christian discrimination.”
The task force is a threat to the religiously diverse workforce at the State Department, she added.
“This task force is not a response to Christian persecution; it’s an attempt to privilege Christian Nationalism.”
“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.”
Americans United filed a similar Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the administration in June over an anti-Christian bias task force created within the Veteran’s Administration. The action accuses the VA of withholding requested information and also placing its religiously diverse staff and veterans at risk of discrimination.
Democracy Forward has submitted multiple freedom of information requests with the administration, as well, including Aug. 5 filings for reproductive health care records from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Skye Perryman
Submitted in conjunction with Reproductive Freedom for All, the requests are a response to growing evidence the administration is secretly working to withdraw access to abortion medication and to weaken emergency health care protections for pregnant patients, the groups said.
“The public has a right to know how and why the Trump-Vance administration is targeting vital health care and reproductive access,” Democracy Forward President Skye Perryman said. “We are using every legal tool available to expose these unlawful and deeply harmful efforts to impose dangerous and politically motivated restrictions on reproductive health care.”
Americans deserve the truth about their health care, added Mini Timmaraju, president of Reproductive Freedom for All.
“Make no mistake: With every move they make, they’re dragging us closer to a national (abortion) ban.”
“This administration is quietly rigging the system with anti-abortion loyalists to enact a backdoor abortion ban, even in states that have protected abortion access,” Timmaraju said. “Make no mistake: With every move they make, they’re dragging us closer to a national ban.”
Mini Timmaraju
Democracy Forward also filed a lawsuit in July demanding information about deportation actions of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The group’s unanswered requests were submitted between February and May and sought information about coordination between the agencies and about the role played by Trump adviser Stephen Miller.
“These are public institutions carrying out public actions with public dollars — yet they are operating in secrecy without accountability,” Perryman said. “The American people have a right to know how and why these aggressive immigration policies are being implemented, and whether those policies are being driven by individuals outside of government with extreme political agendas.”
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