Eric Holder doesn't need to ask permission from Congress or the courts to re-jigger Justice Department policies to better insulate defendants from the burdens of the sequester. For example, he can order his line prosecutors to slow down the pace of criminal filings until the sequester ends, a perfect reasonable move that 87 chief federal judges (87 chief federal judges!) seemed to hint at last week in a remarkable letter to Joe Biden in which they urged him and Congress to do end the sequester's toll upon the administration of justice.

"Exacerbating the problem in the defenders account is the fact that the Judiciary has no control over the number and nature of cases in which court-appointed counsel must provide a defense. The Department of Justice is not furloughing staff," the judges wrote. "The pace at which criminal cases require court-appointed counsel has continued unabated, while resources in the Defender Services program are diminishing." The feds can ease this growing imbalance without triggering "speedy trial" concerns or jeopardizing public safety-- as Holder himself recognized last week with the announcement of important sentencing reforms.

Acting in ways to ease the sequester's impact upon litigants, rather than complaining about the continuing pain of the sequester upon litigants, would be both a proactive and necessary thing for the nation's chief law enforcement official to do. For example, how long do you suppose this component of the sequester would last if the Justice Department started laying off a prosecutor for each public defender laid off by budget cuts? Don't laugh. Things are so bad in the nation's courts that a federal judge last month suggested that the House Judiciary Committee fire one of its lawyers every time a public defender had to be fired as a result of the sequester.

"The joke's on us," wrote U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf, sitting in Nebraska. "There is simply no excuse or rationalization for the ongoing destruction of the federal judiciary. None whatsoever." Indeed, in all my years of covering the federal courts I have never seen so many judges (of both political parties) be willing to be so outspoken about the harm this budget crisis is causing to the nation's rule of law. These jurists are caught in the middle. The American people obviously are caught in the middle. And it's time the Justice Department put itself squarely in the middle, too. An op-ed is a good start. But it's not nearly enough

A Congress that tripped all over itself earlier this year to ensure that there would be no flight delays because of the sequester has been remarkably content to run our judiciary into the ground-- and to then hide from the blame that comes with refusing to adequately fund the third branch of government. "When cases lag," the judges told Vice President Biden last week, "the Judiciary is seen as inefficient, or worse, unsympathetic to litigants ranging from pro-se litigants (who represent themselves) to individuals and companies seeking bankruptcy relief or the resolution of civil disputes to the government and defendants in criminal cases."