Shutdowns began as a way to enforce federal law. Now Trump is using it to take more power.

"The government shutdown, already the second-longest in history, with no end in sight, is quickly becoming a way for President Donald Trump to exercise new command over the government. It wasn't always this way. In fact, it all started with an attempt to tighten Washington's observance of federal law. The modern phenomena of the U.S. government closing down services began in 1980 with a series of legal opinions from Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti, who was serving under Democratic President Jimmy Carter."

"Civiletti reached into the Antideficiency Act of 1870 to argue that the law was "plain and unambiguous" in restricting the government from spending money once authority from Congress expires. In this shutdown, however, the Republican president has used the funding lapse to punish Democrats, tried to lay off thousands of federal workers and seized on the vacuum left by Congress to reconfigure the federal budget for his priorities."

The government shutdown, the second-longest in U.S. history with no end in sight, is enabling President Donald Trump to exercise greater control over federal operations and budget priorities. The shutdown traces back to 1980 legal opinions by Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti applying the Antideficiency Act of 1870 to limit spending after congressional authority expires. Civiletti also allowed performance of essential services while aiming to restore public trust through strict legal interpretations. In the current lapse, the president has used funding gaps to punish political opponents, propose mass federal layoffs, and reconfigure spending priorities while Democrats have remained entrenched, complicating resolution and potentially changing future responses to funding lapses.

Read at Boston.com