WASHINGTON?Bioterrorism is being felt across all three branches of government: Supreme Court justices are camped out in borrowed quarters; lawmakers are scattered around town; mail to the White House and numerous other federal offices is under quarantine.

“I can’t think of anything that has disrupted government as much since the Civil War,” said government professor James Thurber, sizing up the effects of the anthrax attacks layered on top of the Sept. 11 plane crashes. “The terrorists have succeeded much beyond their own expectations, I’m sure.”

The interruptions ripple through government from top to bottom and around the globe.