US courts set to run out of money, begin furloughs as shutdown lingers

18/10/2025 6:27

The U.S. federal court system starting on Monday will begin curtailing non-essential functions and furloughing some employees after exhausting what funds the judiciary had left to sustain paid operations during the U.S. government shutdown.



The announcement, detailed in a Thursday internal memo reviewed by Reuters, means the federal judiciary will for the first time in nearly three decades be forced to send some of its over 30,000 employees home and require others to work without a paycheck after Congress failed to pass legislation keeping the

courts and the rest of the government funded.



The shutdown has already caused widespread delays in civil lawsuits involving federal agencies, as many of their employees have been furloughed. However, judges overseeing numerous legal challenges to Republican President Donald Trump's policies have frequently denied government requests to pause those cases.