A federal worker union sued the Trump administration on Friday due to automatic email responses from employees at the Education Department that blame Democrats for the government shutdown.
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) represented by the Democracy Forward and Public Citizen Litigation Group sent a cease and desist letter, and also filed a lawsuit against the Education Department over the political statement issued in staff email responses.
“Federal employees already are suffering financially by going without a salary due to this politically motivated government shutdown,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said in a statement.
“Now the administration has directly and deliberately violated the First Amendment rights of furloughed workers at the Department of Education by replacing their out-of-office email messages with partisan political language without the employees’ consent,” he added.
The Hill reached out to the Education Department for comment.
After the government shutdown this week, a series of automated out-of-office emails were sent by Education Department employees reading, “On September 19, 2025, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 5371, a clean continuing resolution. Unfortunately, Democrat Senators are blocking passage of H.R. 5371 in the Senate which has led to a lapse in appropriations.”
Democrats have withheld the needed votes to approve a stopgap bill in an effort to ensure Affordable Care Act premium subsidies are extended and have advocated to reverse cuts to Medicaid. However, Republicans have refused to negotiate on the two topics, leaving lawmakers in Washington at a standstill.
House Republicans were sent home and will return in mid-October with plans to return once Senate Democrats approve legislation to maintain government spending levels until Nov. 21.
While there’s been no sign of progress in recent days, Friday’s lawsuit alleges federal workers have been unwillingly placed in the middle of the conflict as “mouthpieces” for the GOP party.
“It is profoundly offensive for the government to commandeer federal employees’ voices for partisan purposes,” said Cormac Early, Public Citizen Litigation Group attorney.
“Government workers have a First Amendment right not to be conscripted as political mouthpieces against their will,” he added.
One employee told NBC News, who first reported the responses, that they tried to revert their email to a non-partisan reply but said officials changed it back to the partisan email response.
In the Friday lawsuit, attorneys allege the messaging violates the Hatch Act, a federal law passed in 1939 that prevents federal employees from engaging in partisan activities. It specifically applies to workers responsible for administering federally funded programs.
“This whole-of-government approach to partisan messaging is unprecedented, and it makes a mockery of statutory prohibitions like the Hatch Act,” the lawsuit says, citing the government’s failure to provide notice or obtain employees’ consent before changing email messaging.
“Especially pernicious, however, are the Administration’s efforts to co-opt the voices of rank-and-file employees in the nonpartisan civil service to take part in political messaging,” it adds.