A federal employee union is suing the Department of Education over altered out-of-office messages sent on behalf of furloughed workers which blame Democrats for the government shutdown, reported NBC News. "This whole-of-government approach to partisan messaging is unprecedented, and it makes a mockery of statutory prohibitions like the Hatch Act," the complaint by the American Federation of Government Employees states. NBC reported on Thursday that five employees with the Education Department had put up nonpartisan out-of-office messages, only to see that they were changed — without their permission — to partisan ones. And I pasted it on top of that — basically has a standard out-of-office," another Education Department employee said. I guess they're now making us all guilty of violating the Hatch Act."