Federal Judge Rules Trump Administration Violated First Amendment by Forcing Partisan Auto-Reply Messages on Federal Employees

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that the Trump administration violated the First Amendment by commandeering Education Department employees’ email accounts to send partisan messages blaming Democrats for the government shutdown. The automated responses stated that the House passed a continuing resolution on September 19, 2025, but “Democrat Senators are blocking passage,” leading to furlough status. Multiple employees told NPR they did not write the message and were not informed it would replace their personalized out-of-office notices, discovering the partisan language only when constituents and colleagues received the politically charged auto-replies from their official government email accounts.

Judge Cooper’s memorandum stated: “Nonpartisanship is the bedrock of the federal civil service; it ensures that career government employees serve the public, not the politicians. By commandeering its employees’ e-mail accounts to broadcast partisan messages, the Department chisels away at that foundation.” The ruling emphasized that the Education Department cannot compel federal workers to engage in partisan speech, noting that such forced political messaging violates both First Amendment protections and the Hatch Act principles that prohibit federal employees from using their official positions for partisan political purposes. Cooper ordered the Department to immediately restore union members’ personalized out-of-office email notices.

The case, brought by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), revealed a systematic effort to weaponize federal employees’ official communications for political messaging during the shutdown. The administration had initially provided employees with “factual, nonpartisan language” for auto-replies, but subsequently locked employees out of their accounts if they used those neutral messages, forcing them to either accept the partisan language or lose email access entirely. This coercive approach—using account access as leverage to compel political speech—represented an egregious abuse of executive authority, transforming career civil servants into unwilling spokespersons for Trump administration talking points and undermining the professional, nonpartisan foundation of federal service.