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The ongoing U.S. government shutdown, now stretching into its record-breaking 34th day, has unleashed a wave of financial distress across multiple sectors — most notably among court-appointed defense lawyers who represent the nation’s poorest defendants in federal criminal cases.
Approximately 12,000 private attorneys across the United States serve on government-managed panels under the Criminal Justice Act (CJA), offering legal defense to individuals who cannot afford representation. However, the program’s funding collapsed in early July, and the subsequent congressional deadlock has frozen all new appropriations, leaving these lawyers unpaid for weeks.
The situation has triggered a constitutional alarm. With roughly 40% of federal indigent cases handled by private attorneys and the remaining 60% managed by public defenders—who themselves have been working without pay since mid-October—the U.S. judiciary faces an unprecedented challenge in upholding the Sixth Amendment right to counsel as guaranteed by the landmark 1963 ruling Gideon v. Wainwright.
Judges in California and New Mexico have already faced motions to dismiss criminal indictments due to nonpayment of defense counsel and the inability to fund expert witnesses. Although courts have refused such dismissals, they acknowledge the mounting strain on the judicial system, with trials being postponed and defendants’ rights increasingly jeopardized.
“Criminal defendants and society are both invested in ensuring fair trials and effective assistance of counsel,” observed U.S. District Judge Matthew Garcia, who reluctantly postponed a fentanyl distribution trial due to lack of defense funding.
For many private attorneys—85% of whom are sole practitioners or small-firm lawyers—the shutdown’s financial uncertainty is untenable. They earn a modest $175 per hour for standard cases and $223 for capital cases, rates that are far below market averages.
As air travel delays, halted economic data collection, and suspended federal food aid dominate headlines, the silent collapse of the legal safety net for America’s most vulnerable defendants underscores a deeper truth: the U.S. shutdown is no longer a bureaucratic inconvenience—it is a constitutional crisis in motion.