The Supreme Court says its reserves have finally run dry, the latest high-stakes ripple from the rolling government shutdown. On Friday, Public Information Officer Patricia McCabe said the Court “expects to run out of funding on October 18” and, “if new appropriated funds do not become available” after that, “the Court will make changes in its operations to comply” with federal law.
That means the marble building will go quiet for visitors, but the justices will keep working. In the same statement, the Court said, “the Supreme Court Building will be closed to the public until further notice. The Building will remain open for future business. The Supreme Court will continue to conduct essential work such as hearing oral arguments, issuing orders and opinions, processing case filings, and providing police and building support needed for those operations.” In other words, the lights stay on for the core constitutional stuff, tourists and casual court watchers get the pause button.
Across the federal judiciary, the money squeeze is about to bite too. The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts announced that beginning Monday, October 20, courts will shift to limited operations, a shutdown posture dictated by the Anti-Deficiency Act. “Examples of excepted work include activities necessary to perform constitutional functions under Article III, activities necessary for the safety of human life and protection of property, and activities otherwise authorized by federal law,” the judiciary said. “Excepted work will be performed without pay during the funding lapse. Staff members not performing excepted work will be placed on furlough.”
Practically, that means judges continue to decide cases, clerks accept filings, emergency matters get attention, and individual courts set triage plans for what can wait. Jury operations can continue, and electronic filing stays up, but much of the behind-the-scenes support will thin out until Congress turns the spigot back on. The judiciary underscored that each appellate, district, and bankruptcy court will decide how to manage hearings, probation, and defender staffing during the lapse, with offices pared back to the minimum needed to support excepted work.
The Court just wrapped its October sitting, including arguments in a major Voting Rights Act case from Louisiana, and it is slated to take up a challenge to President Donald Trump’s tariff authority in early November. On the emergency docket, an application tied to National Guard deployment in Illinois is among the matters hovering over the shutdown drama. The Court is expected to issue routine orders on Monday, October 20, from its private conference, even as public access remains curtailed.
The shutdown politics that created this crunch show no signs of easing. But the legal framework for a funding lapse is clear, and the judiciary is moving into that mode. Justices have life tenure and their pay cannot be reduced, so they keep working, while many career staffers will either be furloughed or work without pay if their tasks are deemed excepted. That is a grim reality for people who keep the system running, and it is a reminder that even the nation’s highest court has to mind the balance sheet when Congress does not.
