By Daniel Wiessner

(Reuters) -A federal judge ruled on Friday that President Donald Trump’s administration violated the free-speech rights of furloughed U.S. Department of Education employees by altering their out-of-office email messages to blame “Democrat Senators” for the ongoing government shutdown.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington, D.C., said that nonpartisanship is the foundation of government service, and commandeering Education Department employees’ email accounts to broadcast a partisan message erodes it.

“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,” wrote Cooper, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama.

The American Federation of Gover

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