Federal Government Civil Filings Rebound After the Shutdown

The latest available data from the federal courts for February 2019 show that the number of civil suits filed by the U.S. government has rebounded from their depressed levels during the federal government partial shutdown. See Figure 1. The number of federal civil suits where the U.S. government was recorded as the plaintiff during February was 285. This is roughly the same number that the courts received during October and the month of November 2018 before the shutdown began.

Compared with the 285 suits filed during February, only 190 were initiated by the government during January 2019 at the height of the shutdown. These findings are based on case-by-case court records analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University[1].

The long term trend in civil filings initiated by the United States going back five years is also shown in Figure 1. The vertical bars in Figure 1 represent the number of civil filings of this type recorded each month. The superimposed line on the bars plots the six-month moving average so that natural fluctuations are smoothed out.


Figure 1. Federal Government Civil Filings Over the Last Five Years
(Click for larger image)

Currently available information does not pinpoint exactly which types of suits may have been most impacted by the shutdown. Even absent a shutdown, the composition of civil litigation initiated in the federal courts by the government can vary from month to month. Some suits are preceded by lengthy investigations, while others go quickly from consideration to filing. The data do suggest that some categories of litigation falling under a miscellaneous list the court labels as "Other Statutes" may have been most affected. See Table 1.

Table 1. Effect of Shutdown on Federal Civil Suits Brought by the U.S.*
Nature of Suit Oct-2018 Nov-2018 Dec-2018 Jan-2019 Feb-2019
Total 286 296 193 190 285
Bankruptcy 1 10 9 7 10
Civil Rights 9 42 34 35 24
Contract 23 75 54 68 70
Forfeiture/Penalty 74 3 5 1 0
Labor 14 18 12 14 19
Property Rights 1 45 12 13 61
Real Property 72 1 1 5 4
Social Security 4 47 28 16 46
Tax Suits, Federal 33 3 2 0 2
Other Statutes 55 52 35 31 49
Miscellaneous 0 0 1 0 0
Details on "Other Statutes" Suits
Other Statutory Actions 55 52 35 31 49
False Claims Act 4 5 2 2 6
Qui Tam 1 1 1 2 0
Antitrust 2 2 2 0 6
Banks and Banking 0 1 1 0 0
Commerce 1 0 0 0 0
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations 1 0 0 1 0
Securities/Commodities/Exchange 15 14 13 3 10
Other Statutory Actions 19 23 12 15 19
Agricultural Acts 0 0 0 0 2
Environmental Matters 12 6 3 8 6
Constitutionality of State Statutes 0 0 1 0 0
* Because of reporting limitations, coverage does not include Central District of California or Northern District of Georgia

Footnotes

[1] Because of reporting limitations, coverage does not include the Central District of California (Los Angeles) or the Northern District of Georgia (Atlanta).

Each month, TRAC offers a free report focused on one area of civil litigation in the U.S. district courts. In addition, subscribers to the TRACFed data service can generate custom reports by district, office, nature of suit or federal jurisdiction via the TRAC Data Interpreter.