For years, the chief judge overseeing the federal courts in Chicago had been trying to fix the water inside the Everett McKinley Dirksen U.S. Courthouse. A study had found that the water flowing to the building’s showers, sinks and drinking fountains most likely contained elevated levels of Legionella, the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease.
But in an interview, Chief Judge Virginia M. Kendall said the General Services Administration, which manages hundreds of federal courthouses around the country on behalf of the executive branch, rejected multiple requests over months to install a disinfection system that would clean the water.
That step had been recommended by a water-treatment expert hired by the court, who found in a 2024 report that colonies of Legionella had most likely established themselves in the pipes of the 62-year-old courthouse.
“The water is just one of many issues in our building,” Judge Kendall said. “We cannot do our jobs with this level of disruption, chaos and delay.”
Judges across the country have been complaining that their courthouses are in a dire state of disrepair, and that the G.S.A. is not doing enough to respond. The extent of the problem was highlighted in interviews with chief judges of district courts as well as in a list of maintenance issues compiled by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, which coordinates operations across the judiciary.
A judge in Oklahoma worked beside a trash bin to catch water falling from a leaking ceiling, before the problem became so severe that she was forced to move to temporary chambers for more than a year. A century-old courthouse in Asheville, N.C., is plagued by mold and a dilapidated heating system, requiring some court services to move off-site. Judges from other courthouses say the G.S.A. has been slow to address problems with critical HVAC systems, falling ceiling tiles and termites.
In the Middle District of Florida, the G.S.A. has been slow to respond to repeated leaks in Jacksonville and has taken more than two years to fully repair a fence that secures a parking lot for judges in Ocala, Chief Judge Marcia Morales Howard said in an interview. She criticized the agency for failing to take into account the impact of courthouse shutdowns on jurors, litigants and the rule of law. “G.S.A. gets paid their rent no matter what,” she said. “And we can’t move. So there’s just no urgency in getting the repairs done.”
The problems with the nation’s courthouses are one facet of a crisis over the federal government’s longstanding inability to maintain its own buildings. Edward C. Forst, the G.S.A.’s administrator, has blamed a requirement that the agency get congressional approval in advance of major projects. As for courthouses, he has argued that the $1.3 billion the judiciary pays each year in rent is a bargain compared with the cost of repairs. He has also cited a report from the Government Accountability Office that found the judiciary’s own guidelines for the design of its courthouses will lead to higher costs.
But for judges the problem is especially frustrating because they must rely on the G.S.A., part of the executive branch, to persuade Congress to address their needs.
G.S.A. control of courthouse repairs is inconsistent with the nation’s tradition of separation of powers, said Judge Robert J. Conrad Jr., the director of the Administrative Office.
“We ought to be responsible for our own buildings. We ought not to be reliant upon an agency of the executive branch to manage our buildings,” Judge Conrad said in an interview. “Judicial independence, conceptually, is more important today than it has ever been.”
After years of frustration, Judge Conrad said the judiciary is now asking Congress to give it control of courthouses in 10 of the country’s 94 judicial districts — a pilot that could eventually lead to a more substantial handover. Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, mentioned the possibility of legislation that would transfer control of some courthouses to the judiciary in a hearing on Tuesday.
In a statement, a spokesman for the G.S.A. defended the agency’s record and characterized the effort to transfer control of courthouses to the judiciary as misguided. The G.S.A. “remains the most qualified entity to oversee the judiciary’s real estate portfolio,” said Michael Tammero, the spokesman. Major repairs to several courthouses, including Dirksen, are part of the agency’s proposals to Congress for the next fiscal year.
Judge Conrad acknowledged the role that Congress has played in delaying needed repairs, but said the courts should not have to go through the G.S.A., which he said has failed to make a strong case on their behalf. “G.S.A. wouldn’t prioritize the judiciary’s needs the way we would,” he said. “They’re conflicted because of their need to advocate for executive branch projects.”
In the most recent fiscal year, Judge Conrad noted, the G.S.A. succeeded in persuading Congress to appropriate $239 million so the agency could renovate its own headquarters in downtown Washington. Meanwhile, Congress failed to approve the G.S.A.’s funding request for hundreds of millions of dollars in major courthouse repairs. “When they do get money, they spend it on themselves,” Judge Conrad said.
At Dirksen, Judge Kendall said, the G.S.A. did not fully address the water issue until after a sitting judge got sick. For years, Judge Robert W. Gettleman used the water from the sink in his chambers to brush his teeth. Then in April, the 83-year-old judge was hospitalized for meningitis and found to have pneumonia as well. Though he was not tested for Legionnaires’ disease, Judge Gettleman said in an interview, a doctor at the hospital said that ailment appeared likely based on his symptoms, and he responded well to a broad-spectrum antibiotic used to treat Legionella and other bacterial infections. (Judge Gettleman’s son is a reporter for The New York Times.)
Mr. Tammero, the G.S.A. spokesman, said the court lacked “substantiating evidence” that Judge Gettleman’s illness was caused by Dirksen’s water. “The courts should remain focused on their core mission rather than engage in unsupported medical speculation,” he said in a statement.
In an interview, Janet E. Stout, an expert on water quality who helped set industrywide Legionella standards for engineers and who has done work for the G.S.A., defended the agency’s approach to testing and remediation. Ms. Stout said that the G.S.A. “goes above and beyond” the safety standards of other organizations, and that its “conservative” approach to signage and turning off water can sometimes “elevate anxiety levels” of its buildings’ tenants.
Judge Kendall went back to the G.S.A. and told the agency she could not stand by and see a colleague “almost die because you haven’t put in a disinfection machine,” she said in an interview. The agency was already trying to reduce bacteria by installing filtered shower heads and flushing water through the building’s pipes, but in her view that was not sufficient. In mid-June, Judge Kendall said, the G.S.A. finally agreed to install the disinfection system at Dirksen. But as of mid-July, the project was not yet complete. Jurors and courthouse workers currently drink from water coolers, the costs for which are divided between the court and the agency.
This is not the first time the Chicago courthouse has had problems with the G.S.A.’s stewardship. In 2024, court officials complained about sewage seeping down into workspaces after a renovation to cellblocks for criminal defendants on the building’s 24th floor. The project took five and a half years, and was eventually completed at a cost of more than $21.3 million.
