SCOTUSblog by Stephen Wermiel 1/24/2019
SCOTUS for law students: Keeping the Supreme Court openSuppose the federal courts run out of money in the current federal government shutdown? What happens to the Supreme Court?
The answer is that the Supreme Court will continue to perform its essential functions, including processing petitions, hearing oral arguments and deciding cases. But exactly how that will happen remains a work in progress.
The federal court system, including the Supreme Court, depends for its financing on the same budget and appropriations process as other parts of the federal government. Through the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, the entire federal judicial system submits an annual budget request that funds myriad functions from construction of new court buildings to repairs of existing facilities to salaries for federal defenders, judges, court staff and security personnel, to paying juror fees and more. The budget request for the current Fiscal Year 2019 was prepared in February 2018.
The Constitution says in Article I, Section 9, that any money to be spent from the U.S. Treasury must be the result of an appropriation by Congress. In the absence of such appropriations, a shutdown is triggered. When Congress and President Donald Trump failed to agree on legislation to fund numerous federal agencies, the judicial budget was among those left on the table, leading to the current crisis.
The federal court system has continued to operate by imposing some cost-cutting measures and by relying on non-appropriations revenue raised through fees that litigants pay to file their cases in federal courts. Typically, to file a civil lawsuit in federal district court, a litigant must pay a $400 filing fee. To appeal to a federal appeals court, the docketing charge is $500. To file a petition in the Supreme Court, a petitioner must pay a $300 fee. These fees may be waived for those who cannot afford to pay them.
The Administrative Office, which supports the work of the federal courts and is also funded from the judiciary budget, has put out a series of advisory statements estimating how long the federal courts can sustain operations with no appropriation and just based on court fees and cost-cutting. Earlier this week, the Administrative Office said the funds would run out after next Thursday, January 31.
What does that mean for the federal courts? For the Supreme Court? Like many legal questions, the answer is complicated.
More:
https://www.scotusblog.com/2019/01/scotus-for-law-students-keeping-the-supreme-court-open/
