Order Blocks U.S. Department of Education From Forcing Partisan Shutdown Language Through Federal Workers’ Email Accounts
Washington, D.C. — A federal court today ruled that the Trump-Vance administration unlawfully compelled civil servants at the U.S. Department of Education to transmit partisan political messaging from their government email accounts during the ongoing federal shutdown — violating core First Amendment protections.
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the nation’s largest federal worker union, brought the lawsuit. AFGE is represented by Democracy Forward and Public Citizen Litigation Group.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia held that federal workers do not lose their First Amendment rights during a government shutdown — and that the administration cannot undermine civil servants’ identities, voices, or government systems to force them to push a partisan message blaming “Democrat Senators” for the current government shutdown. The court granted AFGE’s motion for summary judgment and permanently blocked the Department from continuing to compel this speech.
“Just as the longest government shutdown in history was beginning, the Trump administration replaced furloughed Department of Education employees’ out-of-office messages with partisan political language blaming Democrats for the shutdown,” said AFGE National President Everett Kelley. “The Trump-Vance administration’s use of official government resources to spread partisan messaging using employees’ email was an unprecedented violation of the First Amendment, and the court’s ruling makes clear that even this administration is not above the law.”
“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.”
“Today’s ruling vindicates the foundational principle that career federal civil servants work for the people, not for partisan interests,” said Cormac Early, attorney at 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 civil servants to serve as his unwilling mouthpieces in doing so.”
The court emphasized that nonpartisanship is the bedrock of the federal civil service, and that forcing political messaging through employees’ own automatic replies – while employees could not access their accounts to fix or disavow the message – violated that principle.
As a result of today’s ruling, the Department may not impose partisan messaging in employees’ out-of-office replies for the duration of the shutdown.