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 specified that the court will order the department to remove the messaging from all affected employees’ email accounts if it is technologically impossible to “immediately remove partisan messaging” from only AFGE members’ accounts.

The altered email messages in full read: “The Department employee you have contacted is currently in furlough status. On September 19, 2025, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 5371, a clean continuing resolution. Unfortunately, Democrat Senators are blocking passage of H.R. 5371 in the Senate which has led to a lapse in appropriations. The employee you have contacted will respond to emails once government functions resume.”

When reached for comment on the judge’s ruling, the Education Department sent an automated reply thanking the recipient for contacting the media department while using language similar to the out-of-office messages, saying “Democrat Senators” were blocking the passage of the House-passed stopgap bill.

“Due to the lapse in appropriations, we are currently in furlough status. We will respond to emails once government functions resume,” the rest of the email read.

AFGE president Everett Kelley said in a news release from Democracy Forward, a legal group that co-represented the union in the suit, that the ruling “makes clear that even this administration is not above the law.”

Hundreds of thousands of federal employees have been furloughed since the government shutdown started Oct. 1. Many others, including air traffic controllers, are required to work without pay during the funding lapse.