By Daniel Wiessner
(Reuters) -A federal judge ruled on Friday that President Donald Trump’s administration violated the free-speech rights of furloughed U.S. Department of Education employees by altering their out-of-office email messages to blame “Democrat Senators” for the ongoing government shutdown.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington, D.C., said that nonpartisanship is the foundation of government service, and commandeering Education Department employees’ email accounts to broadcast a partisan message erodes it.
“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,” wrote Cooper, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama.
The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union representing federal workers, had sued over the email messages last month.
Cooper ordered the Education Department to immediately remove a line blaming “Democrat Senators” for the shutdown from the email messages of workers who are AFGE members. The judge said he would order the department to remove the messaging from all employees’ accounts if it is technologically impossible to parse out accounts of union members.
The shutdown, the longest in U.S. history, entered its 38th day on Friday with no end in sight. The lapse in funding has led to many federal workers missing paychecks and millions of Americans losing food stamp benefits, and could force airlines to cut up to 20% of flights due to a lack of air traffic controllers.
Democrats in the Senate are refusing to pass a budget bill that does not include the extension of expiring health insurance subsidies, and the Trump administration has blamed Democrats for the funding lapse at every opportunity.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has aired videos in airports blaming Democrats for disruptions to airport security, and many agencies have posted similar messages on their websites.
(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
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