A federal judge said on Nov. 7 that the Department of Education violated the First Amendment by using employee email accounts to send out-of-office messages blaming Democrats for the ongoing government shutdown.
“When government employees enter public service, they do not sign away their First Amendment rights, and they certainly do not sign up to be a billboard for any given administration’s partisan views,” U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper said in his 36-page opinion.
Cooper ordered the department to remove existing partisan language and permanently enjoined it from adding new partisan language.
A day before the government shutdown started on Oct. 1, the department advised furloughed employees to set up a reply that Cooper described as “plain-vanilla.” It simply stated that the employee was unable to respond due to a lapse in appropriations….
Judge Prohibits Education Department From Using Partisan Out-of-Office Emails for Employees
