Education Department's out-of-office messages blaming Democrats for the shutdown are unconstitutional, judge rules

A federal judge ruled Friday that the partisan language added to out-of-office email messages of furloughed Education Department employees violates their First Amendment rights.

The ruling is in response to a lawsuit filed last month against the Trump administration by members of the American Federation of Government Employees over the alteration of employees’ emails without their consent.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper on Friday characterized the message, which said the contacted employee was furloughed due to “Democrat Senators” blocking a Republican funding bill, as “commandeering…employees’ email accounts to broadcast partisan messages.”

The ruling applies only to Education Department employees who are members of the union that brought the lawsuit, though Cooper specifie