Judge says Education Dept partisan out-of-office emails violated First Amendment
14 days ago
- #First Amendment
- #Education Department
- #Government Shutdown
- A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration violated the First Amendment rights of Education Department employees by replacing their personalized out-of-office emails with partisan messages blaming Democrats for the government shutdown.
- The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) filed the lawsuit, arguing the move was a clear violation of employees' rights and part of broader harassment by the department's leadership.
- Judge Christopher Cooper ordered the department to restore personalized out-of-office messages immediately or remove the partisan language from all employees' accounts.
- The department had initially provided neutral boilerplate language for out-of-office messages but later replaced them with a partisan message blaming Senate Democrats for the shutdown.
- The judge criticized the department for turning employees into political spokespeople and emphasized the importance of nonpartisanship in federal service, referencing the Hatch Act.