Oct 17, 2025 - Politics & Policy

Federal courts to run out of money, begin furloughs as shutdown drags on

Josephine Walker

federal court with scales of justice outside — The U.S. district courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, on Oct. 8. Photo: Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The federal court system will no longer have the money to "sustain full, paid operations" of its 94 district and 13 circuit courts starting on Monday after exhausting the funds it was using for the first few weeks of the government shutdown.

Why it matters: The reduced operations will further bog down a court system already struggling to make it through its normal caseload and add to the hundreds of thousands of employees already furloughed or laid off by the Trump administration this year.

What they're saying: "Until the ongoing lapse in government funding is resolved, federal courts will maintain limited operations necessary to perform the Judiciary's constitutional functions," the judiciary said in a Friday news release announcing the lapse.

"Individual courts will determine which cases will continue on schedule, and which may be delayed."
Federal judges will continue to serve as outlined in the Constitution, but court staff may only perform certain "excepted activities permitted under the Anti-Deficiency Act."

Context: The Anti-Deficiency Act prohibits the spending of federal funds when they haven't been appropriated.

Driving the news: The judiciary warned on Oct. 1 that it was going to have to shutter some operations on Oct. 17 once it ran out of the court fees and other non-appropriated funds that were temporarily keeping business running as usual.

With the Senate voting down the House proposal to reopen the government for the 10th time Thursday, with no plans to vote again until Monday, it seems unlikely that the courts will receive funding before the shutdown hits the three-week mark next Tuesday.

Zoom in: The only court staffers that'll be allowed to work are those performing necessary "exempted work."

That's essentially any activity necessary to perform the Judiciary's Constitutionally-mandated requirements or other activities authorized by law.
Exempted staffers will work without pay, and all others will be furloughed.

Go deeper: How the government shutdown could disrupt daily life

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Federal courts to run out of money, begin furloughs as shutdown drags on

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