Overview
- U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper found the department violated furloughed employees’ First Amendment rights by inserting language blaming “Democrat Senators” for the shutdown.
- The court ordered removal of the partisan phrasing and permanently prohibited the agency from modifying away messages to include partisan speech for AFGE members.
- If the department cannot technically limit changes to union members’ accounts, the judge signaled he will require removal from all affected accounts.
- Officials had shifted the message from first person to third person after the lawsuit, a tweak the judge said did not cure the compelled-speech problem.
- AFGE, represented by Democracy Forward and Public Citizen Litigation Group, brought the case as other agencies faced scrutiny for similar shutdown messaging.