The ongoing federal government shutdown is beginning to take its toll at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago, where money has run out to pay employees for nonessential duties and jury trials have been canceled amid growing uncertainty.
The closure, which began on October 1, only initially affected civil lawsuits in which the United States is a party, as the court maintains a reserve of funds that allow most operations to continue.
However, Chief U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall said Friday that the U.S. District Courts in Chicago are now entering “Phase Two” of their closures, halting pay to court employees and reducing operations in the clerk’s office to only “excepted activities” such as constitutional functions.
“I am concerned that the lack of appropriations will delay the court’s ability to ensure timely justice,” Kendall said in a written statement. “Moreover, dedicated public servants, who allow those seeking redress immediate access to court, are now feeling the pain of having their salaries suspended and facing difficult financial decisions to keep their families afloat due to the lockdown.”
In one piece of good news, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts notified all federal courts across the country on Wednesday that there are sufficient funds to continue paying jurors and grand jurors, according to Kendall’s statement.
“Therefore, all trials and grand jury hearings will continue as scheduled until such time as the AO determines that jury fees have been exhausted,” she said.
Despite this, judges in several criminal cases in Dirksen’s U.S. court decided this week to move jury trials that were impending to avoid having to close them in the middle of the proceedings.
Among the postponed cases is that of Antoine Lary, a police officer in south suburban Phoenix, who was scheduled to stand trial on Wednesday on charges of defrauding drug dealers for money.
The trial that began on Wednesday for Jawad Fakroun, a Moroccan national accused of threatening and assaulting a Chicago restaurant owner to collect a debt Fakroun claimed he was owed, was also cancelled. In a subpoena last week, U.S. District Judge Manish Shah said the “uncertainty” surrounding falling credits could impact the ability to summon jurors in the near future.
“Although circumstances may change between now and (the start of trial), the court concludes that a retrial will afford the parties a better opportunity to reasonably and effectively prepare for trial,” Shah wrote. Fakrouni’s trial was postponed to January.
While government shutdowns — and threats of them — have affected the courts several times over the past decade and a half, the situation this year is the most dire since 2013, when federal employees deemed “essential” reported for work but remained without pay until Congress later approved funds.
At the U.S. Attorney’s Office that year, about a third of its 300 employees — mostly civil litigation and support staff — were sent home during the budget crisis. Most of the office’s roughly 125 criminal prosecutors are on budget-related leave, and their work will not be affected.
Joseph Fitzpatrick, a spokesman for current U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros, said Friday that the office has furloughed about a quarter of its staff, most of whom are also civil litigation and support staff.
It’s anyone’s guess how long the lockdown will last this time, but there’s no doubt the money will eventually run out.
In 2013, then-Chief U.S. District Judge Ruben Castillo told the Tribune that if the impasse was not resolved, he was prepared to send a doomsday email that would have halted all trials in the crowded downtown courthouse because he no longer had more money to pay jurors and court-appointed attorneys or cover other costs of the trial.
Officials in Washington had asked Castillo to give jurors IOUs for their service if necessary — something he refused to do.
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com