Order prevents U.S. Department of Education from enforcing partisan shutdown language over federal employees' email accounts
WASHINGTON, DC – A federal court ruled today that the Trump-Vance administration unlawfully compelled U.S. Department of Education officials to transmit partisan political messages from their government email accounts during the ongoing federal shutdown – in violation of core First Amendment protections.
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the largest federal workers union in the country, filed the lawsuit. AFGE is represented by Democracy Forward and Public Citizen Litigation Group.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that federal employees do not lose their First Amendment rights during a government shutdown — and that the government cannot undermine the identities, voices, or systems of government of officials to force them to spread a partisan message blaming “Democratic Senators” for the current government shutdown. The court granted AFGE's motion for summary judgment, permanently barring the department from further enforcing this speech.
“Just as the longest government shutdown in history began, the Trump administration replaced out-of-office notices from furloughed Department of Education employees with partisan political language blaming Democrats for the shutdown,” he said AFGE National President Everett Kelley. “The Trump-Vance Administration’s use of official government resources to spread partisan political messages through employee emails was an unprecedented violation of the First Amendment, and the Court’s decision makes clear that not even this administration is above the law.”
“Today’s ruling confirms the principle that career federal civil servants work for the people and not for partisan interests,” he said Cormac Early, attorney for the Public Citizen Litigation Group. “President Trump is free to blame Democrats or anyone else for the government shutdown, but he cannot force rank-and-file officials to serve as his unwilling mouthpieces.”
“This ruling is a major victory for the constitutional rights of the people who serve our country,” he said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. “No government – regardless of party – can usurp the identities of civil servants and force them to engage in partisan propaganda. Today's decision makes clear that civil servants are not a political tool, and it reaffirms a fundamental principle: Our federal employees serve the public, not political agendas.”
The court emphasized that impartiality is the bedrock of the federal public service and that forcing political messages through employees' own automatic responses — while employees cannot access their accounts to correct or disavow the message — violates that principle.
As a result of today's decision, the Department may not require partisan messages in employees' out-of-office responses for the duration of the closure.
Read the complaint here and the decision here.