Disorder in the court!
The shuttering of the government had an immediate impact on the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Long Island federal courthouses Tuesday as many employees were told to stay home and several cases were halted in their tracks.
An order out of the Manhattan-based Southern District, which includes The Bronx and White Plains, officially suspended any civil cases involving the government until the business day after the shutdown comes to a conclusion, according to a filing by Chief Judge Loretta Preska.
The decision was made “in light of the lapse of funding to the United States Department of Justice,” her order states.
In the Brooklyn-Long Island Eastern District, some employees were told not to come to work until the governmental block was lifted in Washington.
The political gridlock’s impact was felt at the sentencing of a day-care-mogul-turned-embezzler Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court.
An agent with the Department of Agriculture that investigated the case of Joanna Fan was scheduled to appear at her proceeding Tuesday — but was rendered absent because of the shutdown.
Prosecutor Daniel Spector told Judge Dora Irizarry that he couldn’t answer a question about Fan’s day-care licensing status because the agent wasn’t available to provide the relevant information.