Judiciary in revolt? H.W. Bush appointee: "It is time to tell Congress to go to hell."

[BeyondGeography]

Federal judges, long used to being blasted as “judicial activists” by members of Congress, are now directing a stream of anger and vitriol right back at Capitol Hill.

Driving judges’ ire: the budget austerity and chaos lawmakers have imposed on the judiciary. Jurists say funding for the courts has already been cut to the bone by way of sequestration — and now the government shutdown has added insult to injury, leaving the government’s third branch running on fumes that likely won’t last out the week.

“It is time to tell Congress to go to hell,” Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf wrote on his blog last week. “It’s the right thing to do.” Kopf, a George H.W. Bush appointee who sits in Lincoln, Neb., urged his fellow judges to evade the shutdown by designating all their staff as essential and exempt from furlough.

“Given the loss of employees already suffered by the judiciary on account of the sequester and otherwise, why shouldn’t every remaining employee of every federal district court (including [federal public defenders]) be declared ‘essential?’” the judge asked.

“Such an order would set up an inter-branch dispute worth having….[Congress] could do nothing, in which event Congress loses its ability to destroy the judiciary [by] failing to pass a budget. Or, Congress could go batshit and the judiciary and Congress could have it out,” he said.

...For the past two weeks, the federal courts have essentially operated on fumes, using funds from filing fees and so-called no-year appropriations to pay salaries and keep the lights on. Court budget personnel now predict that money will run out on Thursday or Friday of this week. After that, work deemed essential will continue, but there will be no way to pay employees, contractors or utilities until Congress passes legislation including temporary or year-long funding.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/government-shutdown-courts-judges-98233.html#ixzz2hbshObYZ

[leftyohiolib]

1. well it was keep the judiciary or the house gym and you knpw what they chose

[Southside]

2. Keep speaking your honor

They will respect your voice. We must join sides to end this shutdown. People are struggling and the Tea Party is laughing at us. They sent us here by attaching ObamaCare to bills. They are still fanning the flames. I wish they would tone it down and push for an end to this shutdown, but they won't. They will fight to the end. They will run their candidates against any republican who stands in their way. They are the scourge coming to destroy all of our progress to go back to an America I never want to see.

Go your honor.

[Jefferson23]

3. Amazing. K&R

[lonestarnot]

4. Woopsie. Big money not going to stop rolling. Interesting.

[RC]

5. This concocted shutdown is looking more and more like a slow motion implosion.

First the international big money boys, then 150 big US corporations, then the courts. When this is over and done, none of the tea-baggers will be able to even get jobs bagging groceries. And that would be a good thing.
Another good thing is the fact that people are finding out first hand, because of the parts of government that effect them and that are currently shut down, that the government was actually the solution and not the problem.