On October 3, local time, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) issued a statement announcing that the union has filed a lawsuit in court, accusing the Trump administration of modifying the auto-reply emails of furloughed Education Department employees without their consent during the government shutdown, inserting content that blamed Senate Democrats for the government closure.

The lawsuit alleges that the government forced employees to "repeat partisan statements they would not willingly make" by manipulating their email communications. These auto-reply messages were also designed to appear in first person, misleading recipients into believing the email content represented the personal views of the furloughed employees. The American Federation of Government Employees stated that this action violated employees' First Amendment rights to free speech under the U.S. Constitution.

It is reported that some employees had previously been placed on administrative leave due to the Education Department's large-scale staff reduction plan, while remaining employees were furloughed after the government shutdown began on October 1.