Federal Judge Richard Kopf Gets It Right

From Politico, with No Additional Comment Needed

Government shutdown: 'It is time to tell Congress to go to hell'

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Court budget personnel now predict that money will run out by the end of this week. | Reuters

By JOSH GERSTEIN | 10/13/13 7:02 AM EDT Updated: 10/13/13 9:19 AM EDT

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.