Trump Administration Ordered to Halt Some Blame-Democrats Emails

A federal judge ordered the US Department of Education to halt the practice of inserting partisan language into automated out-of-office emails from accounts of furloughed employees that blames the government shutdown on Democratic lawmakers.

Commandeering employee out-of-office messages to fault “Democratic Senators” for causing the shutdown — which began more than a month ago — infringed on the free-speech rights of the workers, US District Judge Christopher R. Cooper said late Friday in his written ruling.

“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,” ...