Federal courts will continue to hear and decide without interruption even if the US government shuts down on Tuesday morning as a result of congressional gridlock.

Federal courthouses will remain open under the terms of the Anti-Deficiency Act, the federal law that calls for “essential” work to continue in the event that federal funding is frozen.  Most judicial services are considered essential; judges would keep working, legal filings would still be processed and federal defenders would continue to be assigned to indigent defendants.

However, while judges continue to hear cases, the Justice Department said it would ask to postpone appearances in civil and bankruptcy cases as long as it did not compromise the safety of human life or the protection of property under the terms of the Anti-Deficiency Act.

The chief judge in each district will have broad latitude to determine which services and staff members were “essential” and which could be put on hold for the duration of the shutdown.  Each court is going to be different.*

The most recent posted statement from the United States Courts states:

The Judiciary will remain open for business through October 17, 2013. When no funding mechanism was in place on October 1, 2013, the Judiciary projected that fee income and no-year appropriated funds would enable court operations to continue for ten business days. The Judiciary has severely restricted spending during that period so that limited additional funding now exists. Spending rates and fund balances will continue to be monitored closely in hope that adequate funds may be available to allow courts to operate through the end of the work week – October 18.