The Trump administration is calling on federal judges to freeze filing deadlines in several environment and energy cases during the government shutdown, even as federal courts said they have the funds for business to proceed as usual for another two weeks.
In a Wednesday statement, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts said that most proceedings and deadlines would occur as scheduled, but that in cases involving executive branch agency attorneys who are not working because of the shutdown, hearing and filing dates may be rescheduled.
Federal district and appellate courts have offered varying guidance on what will happen to cases involving the federal government during the shutdown. Others — like the Supreme Court, which is scheduled to begin its term Monday — have not issued public notices about the impact to their operations.
At least one federal bench — the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio — has ordered a stay of all civil cases in which the U.S. government is a party. But the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California wrote in a Tuesday order that “during a government shutdown, the Court has a constitutional duty to continue to hear and resolve cases.”
