DOGE Rampage May Have ‘Immediate,’ ‘Long-term’ Effects For Courts, Judicial Branch Warns

The federal court system warned its employees that DOGE’s cuts to building services and to executive branch staff could cause “immediate and long-term effects on court operations,” according to a Monday memo obtained by TPM .

The letter focused on cuts to staff at the General Services Administration, the agency that manages buildings and maintenance across the federal government, and to the contracts maintained by that agency. GSA’s portfolio includes multiple federal court buildings, as well as services used by the judiciary.

The Administrative Office of U.S. Courts said in the letter that late on March 3, it “became aware” of “mass reduction-in-force” actions across the GSA, and that more mass layoffs at the agency were expected.

“These actions have the potential to create both immediate and long-term effects on court operations and the services provided by GSA,” the message reads.

The memo demonstrates how far DOGE’s campaign to maim the federal government has gone. In this case, the federal courts, part of the judicial branch, are saying that their daily operations may be impacted DOGE — a shocking admission from court administrators, a group not known for hyperbole or flippancy.

DOGE and the Trump administration’s war on the federal workforce has repeatedly spilled over into the judiciary, a separate branch from the executive that Trump is charged to oversee. TPM first reported that AO informed employees last month that it was working to contain what it described then as a “highly dynamic situation.” Court employees, including federal judges, have received the same kind of degrading emails that executive branch employees have, including messages urging them to leave government and messages demanding that they provide an update on five things they accomplished in the previous week.

The Monday GSA memo doesn’t go into specifics about how AO anticipates DOGE’s mauling of GSA to affect the courts. It does state that GSA had assured court administrators “that it does not anticipate any disruption to daily on-site building operation and maintenance services, nor should there be any impact to building security or access.”

The memo, however, says that current and planned construction updates, including “security system projects” related to the U.S. Marshals Service, may “experience disruptions.”

Court administrators also referenced a list of properties that GSA published online earlier this month, saying that it had deemed them not essential for federal government work. The list of 440 locations included 69 places where the judiciary performs work, the letter said.

Those buildings may still be closed, AO said, but doing so would “take time to execute” — courthouses would not be shut down immediately.

“The AO will continue discussions with GSA, urging them to consider the unique housing needs of the judicial branch before taking actions that could detrimentally impact daily court operations,” the letter reads.

An AO spokesman declined to comment.

Read the memo below: