We are now in the 18th day of the Schumer Shutdown, and the effects are starting to become more pronounced. President Trump has taken the opportunity to stick it to the Dems and gut some of their favorite playthings—including pausing $11 billion in infrastructure projects across a dozen mostly Democratic-led states and more—efforts that the lower courts will almost certainly try to hamper.
Those courts themselves will soon start to feel the pain, however.
All the Democrats have to do is vote for the clean Continuing Resolution to keep the government going, but they’ve dug in their heels and are demanding that the GOP simply bow to them and the outrageous healthcare demands and extend the Obamacare subsidies. It’s almost as if they are completely unaware that there was an election last November—and that they lost.
Now it’s SCOTUS’ turn to get hit with some reality:
The shutdown of the federal government will begin to affect the operations of the federal court system on Monday, including the Supreme Court, which will shut its doors to the public at a time when the judiciary is confronting a pileup of legal challenges to the Trump administration’s policies.
The Supreme Court will continue to hold oral arguments, process case filings and to issue opinions and orders, a court spokeswoman said in a statement on Friday. But the building will only be open for official business — meaning visitors cannot tour the building and its exhibits.
Ok, so no tours—I think we’ll live. But operations will nonetheless be affected, and many cases could get delayed at all levels. The Office of the U.S. Courts said in said in a statement:
The judicial branch announced that beginning on Monday, Oct. 20, it will no longer have funding to sustain full, paid operations. Until the ongoing lapse in government funding is resolved, federal courts will maintain limited operations necessary to perform the Judiciary’s constitutional functions.
Federal judges will continue to serve, in accordance with the Constitution, but court staff may only perform certain excepted activities permitted under the Anti-Deficiency Act.
The Judiciary will begin limited operations on Oct. 20 after exhausting available funds. Federal courts will continue to perform critical Article III functions until the lapse in government funding is resolved. https://t.co/VE7tI9ywJE
— United States Courts (@uscourts) October 17, 2025
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A whole lot of people will be working for free, the statement said, while others will be sent home.
Excepted work includes activities needed to perform constitutional functions for the safety of human life and protection of property, the statement said. This and all other excepted work is to be performed without pay, and staff members not performing excepted work will be furloughed, the statement continued.
It will be interesting to see if public statement shifts more strongly against the Democrats as the consequences of their temper tantrum ad up. The work of the courts will go on, clearly, but the more time that passes, the more their operations will be affected.
I wouldn’t mind at all, however, if some of these anti-Trump district judges who want to impede the Trump agenda at every turn with their endless TROs are sent home for a while.
No one will miss them.
Editor’s Note: The Schumer Shutdown is here. Rather than put the American people first, Chuck Schumer and the radical Democrats forced a government shutdown for healthcare for illegals. They own this.
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