Judge forces Trump admin to remove 'partisan' language from employees' emails

U.S. President Donald Trump hosts a bilateral lunch with Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban (not pictured) at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., November 7, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Federal workers recently scored a win in court over President Donald Trump's administration over political language inserted in their email auto-responses without their consent.

Politico reported Friday that U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper (an appointee of former President Barack Obama) ruled in favor of a union representing federal workers to strike what he called "partisan messages" from Department of Education (Ed) employees' out-of-office messages. The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) successfully argued that the messages violated workers' First Amendment rights.

"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," AFGE national president Everett Kelley stated after the decision was handed down.

In his 36-page ruling, Cooper ruled that the messages that were inserted into Ed employees' auto-replies — which explicitly blamed Democrats for the ongoing government shutdown — were illegal.

"Nonpartisanship is the bedrock of the federal civil service; it ensures that career government employees serve the public, not the politicians," Cooper wrote. "But by commandeering its employees’ e-mail accounts to broadcast partisan messages, the Department chisels away at that foundation."

"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," he added. "The First Amendment stands in their way. The Department’s conduct therefore must cease."

According to the AFGE's lawsuit, Ed workers had initially provided anodyne out-of-office messages ahead of the shutdown, which were soon replaced with Trump administration's talking points: "Unfortunately, Democrat Senators are blocking passage of H.R. 5371 in the Senate which has led to a lapse in appropriations."

"None of us consented to this. And it’s written in the first-person, as if I’m the one conveying this message, and I’m not," one worker told NBC at the time. "I don’t agree with it. I don’t think it’s ethical or legal. I think it violates the Hatch Act."

Click here to read Politico's full article in its entirety.

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