Unlike most federal agencies, the federal judiciary found money to keep federal courts nationwide fully funded for the first two weeks of the government shutdown. As the end of the first week approached with no budget deal, though, chief judges of federal trial and appellate courts across the country grappled with what to do once the money runs out.
“We’re all working through it, trying to figure out where we’re going to go right now,” Chief Judge Morrison England Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California said. “We’re in uncharted territory right now.”
