Daijiworld Media Network - Washington

Washington, Oct 4: The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the nation’s largest federal workers union, filed a lawsuit Friday accusing the US Department of Education of adding partisan language to automated out-of-office emails of furloughed staff during the government shutdown that began Wednesday.

The union, representing 800,000 workers, claims employees’ emails were modified without consent to blame Democratic senators for the shutdown. “Forcing civil servants to speak on behalf of the political leadership’s partisan agenda is a blatant violation of federal employees’ First Amendment rights,” the complaint stated.

The shutdown followed Congress’ failure to pass a budget, leaving an estimated 750,000 workers without pay and halting government services. Similar partisan messages have appeared on websites of other agencies, prompting criticism from ethics experts and watchdog groups citing potential violations of the Hatch Act.

The lawsuit, AFGE v. US Department of Education (25-cv-3553), is filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia. The Department of Education and White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.