Education Department must remove 'partisan' language from shutdown emails: Judge

A federal judge has ruled against the Trump administration over its inclusion of “partisan” language in Education Department employees’ automated emails during the government shutdown, ordering the agency to immediately halt the practice.

The ruling was in response to a lawsuit brought by the American Federation of Government Employees last month, which claimed the administration violated furloughed employees’ First Amendment rights by changing their out-of-office emails without their consent. Those changes included pinning the blame for the shutdown on “Democrat Senators” who are “blocking passage of H.R. 5371 in the Senate which has led to a lapse in appropriations.”