Read, Watch or Listen

A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration violated Education Department employees' First Amendment rights by overwriting their furlough out-of-office emails with a partisan message blaming Senate Democrats for the shutdown. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ordered the agency to restore union members' personalized notices immediately or strip the partisan language from all accounts. The lawsuit was brought by the American Federation of Government Employees. Cooper criticized the department for turning staff into political spokespeople. The department did not respond to NPR's request for comment.

Prepared by Lauren Mitchell and reviewed by editorial team.