The government shutdown is now the longest on record and there's no end in
sight, Democrats won't budge on providing more than 1.3 billion dollars for
President Trump's border wall. No president should pound the table and
demand he gets his way or else the government shuts down. And President
Trump won't consider any proposal from the Democrats without more wall funding.
How much more American blood must we shed before Congress does its job?
Stuck in the middle are thousands of government workers.
Been with this government nine years. I think I've been through five of these. They're not fun.
I could see my desk from here. DC Can't get on the same page. Why are we the collateral damage?
This is our second time we haven't got paid. So uh, you know. It really hurt.
Thousands of so-called essential personnel, like air traffic controllers
and FBI agents, are working without regular paychecks. But because most
shutdowns and years past have only lasted for a few days and because they
haven't been as frequent as they are now, groups of federal employees are mounting
legal challenges over working without regular paychecks. One lawsuit accuses
the government of violating the Thirteenth Amendment. That's the one that
outlaws slavery and involuntary servitude. In this case, the lawsuit
claims that federal workers are being forced into involuntary servitude by
working without regular paychecks. Here's the attorney behind the lawsuit explaining the case:
You know, obviously, our plaintiffs are all federal employees, who
were deemed essential who had to report to work and we're frustrated with the
fact that they were required to work for no pay at a time when they had financial obligations.
I really think that it came about just as, you know, kind of some of
these things do. In conversation, just bouncing ideas back and forth. And
somebody saying, you know, this sounds just like involuntary servitude.
And we said well, you know what, that's exactly what it is. And we did the
research and, you know, even though there's never been a case quite like
this. It fits perfectly into the definition. And so we thought we'd
bring it to the court and see what happens. The U.S. is now in uncharted
waters when it comes to legal challenges against the shutdown. Because one has
never lasted so long. The recent lawsuit regarding the Thirteenth Amendment is a
really novel challenge that we haven't seen before in other federal shutdowns.
But now that we're seeing a longer period of a shutdown, more novel legal
arguments are going to be made. And we're going to be watching that really closely.
And seeing if other arguments are going to appear in the coming days or weeks.
What could also eventually change future shutdowns is going after a law drafted
nearly 150 years ago. It's called "The Antideficiency Act." At the time it was
designed to reiterate Congress's "power of the purse." You know, Congress
authorizes and appropriates funds and the executive branch spends and
implements those funds. But The Anti-deficiency Act really wasn't
thought of by Congress in its initial format as an Employment Law or
regulating employment policy. And with shutdowns becoming more and more
frequent. It actually is having a key role in employment policy when it comes
to the federal government. Over time the law became the de facto employment
policy that the federal government uses to force workers to clock in without
knowing when they'll be paid next. Dickey argues that the law as it's practiced
under current government shutdowns, contradicts another law called the "Fair Labor Standards Act."
The laws from the 1930's and it requires the federal government to pay its workers a minimum wage.
There are some real clashes between the Antideficiency Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act when it comes to a
shutdown situation. And we're currently seeing several class action lawsuits in
the federal courts trying to work out that clash.
So as the government shutdown drags on watch the courts. If any of these
challenges succeed, the next shutdown could play out much differently. But you
never see a case in today's world where people are being forced at the threat of
losing their their property to work for free.
It just it doesn't happen in today's world and it shouldn't.