Editing federal employees’ emails to blame Democrats for shutdown violated their First Amendment rights, judge says

By Devan Cole, CNN

(CNN) — A federal judge ruled Friday that the Department of Education violated the First Amendment rights of some agency employees when it sent out-of-office messages on their behalf that blamed Democrats for the government shutdown.

The ruling from US District Judge Christopher Cooper is the latest court rebuke of controversial moves by the Trump administration during what has now become the longest shutdown in US history.

Cooper, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, said the department had unconstitutionally compelled its employees’ speech when it tinkered with the out-of-office messages for furloughed workers so that they included language blaming the shutdown on “Democrat Senators” who “are blocking” passage of a “clean continuing resolution” that would fund the government.

“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.”

He continued: “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. The First Amendment stands in their way. The Department’s conduct therefore must cease.”

Cooper permanently barred the administration from “modifying furloughed employees’ out-of-office e-mail messages to include partisan speech” for all members of the union American Federation of Government Employees. AFGE represents more than 2,000 workers at the Department of Education.

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