“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. The First Amendment stands in their way. The Department’s conduct therefore must cease,” Cooper said.
Cooper’s order also permanently blocks the department from including partisan speech in the out-of-office messages of employees who are furloughed or on leave.
Arguments over the case in a District of Columbia federal courtroom Tuesday underscored the novel circumstances of the lawsuit — one which attorneys on
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