Overview:
A federal judge ruled that the Department of Education violated employees’ First Amendment rights by using partisan language in out-of-office emails during the recent government shutdown.
According to a federal judge, the Department of Education was unlawful in using partisan messaging on out-of-office automatic replies during the recent government shutdown.
On Friday, November 8, Judge Christopher R. Cooper of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia found that the Department of Education “infringed upon its employees’ First Amendment rights” when it used partisan language in employees’ emails that blamed Democrats for the government shutdown.
The automatic replies read: “The Department employee you have contacted is currently in furlough status. On September 19, 2025, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 5371, a clean continuing resolution. Unfortunately, Democrat Senators are blocking passage of H.R. 5371 in the Senate which has led to a lapse in appropriations. The employee you have contacted will respond to emails once government functions resume.”
These messages which the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) argued violated the Hatch Act.
“This ridiculous ploy by the Trump administration was a clear violation of the First Amendment rights of the workers at the Education Department,” said Rachel Gittleman, the president of AFGE Local 252, which represents many Education Department workers, in a statement. She added it is “one of the many ways the Department’s leadership has threatened, harassed and demoralized these hardworking public servants in the last 10 months.”
District Judge Cooper, an Obama appointee ordered the Department of Education to remove partisan language from the messages for Education employees who are members of the American Federation of Government Employees.
“Nonpartisanship is the bedrock of the federal civil service; it ensures that career government employees serve the public, not the politicians. But by commandeering its employees’ e-mail accounts to broadcast partisan messages, the department chisels away at that foundation,” he wrote. “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.”
“Nonpartisanship is the bedrock of the federal civil service; it ensures that career government employees serve the public, not the politicians,” Cooper wrote. “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,” Judge Cooper continued in his decision, “but they cannot use rank-and-file civil servants as their unwilling spokespeople. The First Amendment stands in their way. The Department’s conduct therefore must cease.”
According to Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward, the national legal organization that represented AFGE said this ruling is a “major victory” in a statement.
“This ruling is a major victory for the constitutional rights of the people who serve our country,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. “ No administration–of any party–can commandeer public servants’ identities and force them to push partisan propaganda. Today’s decision makes it clear that civil servants are not a political tool, and it reinforces a fundamental principle: our federal workforce serves the public, not political agendas.”
