<div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-0"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">For years, the judicial branch has complained that when it comes to hundreds of federal courthouses, the executive branch is a bad landlord, letting storied buildings fall into disrepair.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">On Tuesday, a leader of the judiciary’s administrative body told Congress that the condition of courthouses has gotten so bad that lawmakers should intervene and give the nation’s judges control over their own spaces.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">The matter “has reached a crisis point after decades of inadequate management and oversight,” Judge Robert J. Conrad, the secretary of the courts’ policymaking body, wrote in a letter to lawmakers. The letter proposed <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/document/judiciary-real-property-authority-legislative-package.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">draft legislation</a> to establish a new “Judiciary Buildings Service” that would take over courthouses and other judicial facilities from the General Services Administration, the executive branch agency responsible for their custody and management.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">The judiciary currently pays G.S.A. $1.3 billion each year for rent and other services. That money comes out of its congressionally appropriated budget, forming a substantial part of the roughly $10 billion it receives annually.</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div><div data-testid="Dropzone-1"></div><div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-1"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">Problems with G.S.A.’s oversight of courthouses go back decades, said Judith Resnik, a Yale Law School professor and the co-author of <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://documents.law.yale.edu/representing-justice" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">a book on judicial symbols and courthouses</a>. She called the agency’s performance “a failure of stewardship.”</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">Marianne Copenhaver, a G.S.A. spokeswoman, disputed the courts’ account. “We disagree with the characterization that the federal courthouse portfolio is in ‘crisis’ due to mismanagement,” she said in a statement. The judiciary should continue to focus “on the rule of law,” she added, “while G.S.A. continues to focus on the federal real estate portfolio.”</p><div class="css-kbghgg"><div class="css-121kum4"><div class="css-171d1bw"></div><div class="css-asuuk5"><noscript><div class="css-7axq9l" data-testid="optimistic-truncator-noscript"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="css-1b5b8u1" data-tpl="i" height="24" viewbox="0 0 24 24" width="24"><path clip-rule="evenodd" d="M2.5 12a9.5 9.5 0 1 1 19 0 9.5 9.5 0 0 1-19 0Zm8.5 1.75v-7.5h2v7.5h-2Zm0 2v2h2v-2h-2Z" fill="currentColor" fill-rule="evenodd"></path></svg><div class="css-6yo1no" data-testid="optimistic-truncator-noscript-message"><p class="css-3kpklk" data-tpl="t">We are having trouble retrieving the article content.</p><p class="css-3kpklk" data-tpl="t">Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.</p></div></div></noscript><div class="css-1dv1kvn" id="optimistic-truncator-a11y" tabindex="-1"><hr/><p>Thank you for your patience while we verify access. 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