Judge orders Education Department to remove out-of-office messages blaming Democrats for shutdown
Judge orders Education Department to remove out-of-office messages blaming Democrats for shutdown
Government shutdown impasse stretches on as Senate Republicans reject Democrats' health care offer
Senate Republicans rejected an offer from Democrats to end the shutdown in exchange for a one-year extension of health care tax credits.
A federal judge told the Department of Education to remove "partisan" language blaming "Democrat Senators" for the government shutdown from furloughed federal workers' out-of-office email messages.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper sided with a federal employees' union that alleged its members' auto-reply emails were changed without their permission to insert the partisan message.
Cooper said the move violated the First Amendment because the government had essentially forced staffers to make a political statement against their will, a concept known as "compelled speech."