(The Hill) — A federal judge ruled on Friday that the Trump administration violated the First Amendment by sending automated emails and messages blaming the government shutdown on Democrats.
In the ruling, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper said the Department of Education (DOE) cannot compel federal workers to engage in partisan speech.
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), represented by the Democracy Forward and Public Citizen Litigation Group, previously sent a cease and desist letter and also filed a lawsuit against the Education Department over the political statement issued in staff email responses.
“Nonpartisanship is the bedrock of the federal civil service; it ensures that career government employees serve the public, not the politicians,” Cooper’s memorandum reads. “But by commandeering its employees’ e-mail accounts to broadcast partisan messages, the Department chisels away at that foundation.”
“Political officials are free to blame whomever they wish for the shutdown, but they cannot use rank-and-file civil servants as their unwilling spokespeople,” Cooper continued. “The First Amendment stands in their way. The Department’s conduct therefore must cease.”
The ruling states that the DOE “waited until its furloughed employees lost access to their email, then “gratuitously changed their out-of-office messages to include yet another partisan
message, thereby turning its own workforce into political spokespeople through their official email accounts.”
“The Department may have added insult to injury, but it also overplayed its hand,” Cooper wrote.
Cooper also ruled that the DOE must change its automated email messages back to those originally written by the department’s employees.
The Campaign Legal Center’s vice president and senior director of ethics Kedric Payne praised Cooper’s decision and added that the fight will continue “for our nation’s civil service to remain nonpartisan.”
“The Hatch Act and related laws make it clear that partisan politics have no place in a civil servant’s official duties,” Payne said in a statement.
Appleton International Airport advises travelers to stay connected during shutdown
The Hill has reached out to the DOE for comment. An automated response blamed Senate Democrats for blocking the passage of a continuing resolution to fund the government.
“Due to the lapse in appropriations, we are currently in furlough status,” the automated email read. “We will respond to emails once government functions resume.”
