A federal judge told the Department of Education to remove “partisan” language blaming “Democrat Senators” for the government shutdown from furloughed federal workers’ out-of-office email messages.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper sided with a federal employees’ union that alleged its members’ auto-reply emails were changed without their permission to insert the partisan message.
Cooper said the move violated the First Amendment because the government had essentially forced staffers to make a political statement against their will, a concept known as “compelled speech.”
Embarrassing in the sense of increased morbidity and mortality, not just for US citizens, mind you.
Yes, but also embarrassing in the most fundamental “Jesus Christ, you’re all supposed to be adults, stop acting like high schoolers” kinda way.