United States district court
The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district. Each district covers one U.S. state or a portion of a state. There is at least one federal courthouse in each district, and many districts have more than one. District court decisions are appealed to the U.S. court of appeals for the circuit in which they reside, except for certain specialized cases that are appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit or directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.
This article is about the district courts of the U.S. federal judicial system. For the district courts of various U.S. states' judicial systems, see Courts of the United States § Courts by state of the United States.District courts are courts of law, equity, and admiralty, and can hear both civil and criminal cases. But unlike U.S. state courts, federal district courts are courts of limited jurisdiction, and can only hear cases that involve disputes between residents of different states, questions of federal law, or federal crimes.
Legal basis[edit]
Unlike the U.S. Supreme Court, which was expressly established by Article III of the Constitution, the district courts were established by Congress pursuant to authority delegated by Article III[note 1] through the enacting of a federal statute, the Judiciary Act of 1789. There is no constitutional requirement that district courts exist at all.[1]
During the drafting and ratification of the Constitution, some opponents of a strong federal judiciary argued that the federal courts ought to be limited to the Supreme Court, which would hear appeals only from state courts. In other words, the state courts would be treated as federal tribunals under Article I of the Constitution for the purpose of hearing disputes under federal law, but their judges would not become officers of the federal government.[1] Edward Carrington advocated this position in a letter to James Madison, and it was also discussed by Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 81.[1] However, this view did not prevail, and the first Congress created the district court system that is still in place today.[1] Pursuant to the Constitution, nonetheless, state courts retain the power of concurrent jurisdiction in most federal matters.[2]
When the Act was first passed, there were thirteen districts created among the eleven states which had ratified the Constitution by that point. When North Carolina and Rhode Island voted to ratify, a district was created for each of them, bringing the number of districts to fifteen.
The territories (insular areas) of Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands each have one territorial court; these courts are called "district courts" and exercise the same jurisdiction as district courts,[3][4] but differ from district courts in that territorial courts are Article IV courts, with judges who serve ten-year terms rather than the lifetime tenure of judges of Article III courts, such as the district court judges.[4]
American Samoa does not have a district court or a federal territorial court, and so federal matters there are sent to either the District of Columbia or Hawaii.[5] The Philippines were previously part of the United States but were never part of the U.S. federal court system.[6]
Geography[edit]
There are 89 districts in the 50 states, with a total of 94 districts including territories.[7] There is at least one judicial district for each state, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.
Each state has between one and four districts. For states with multiple districts, they are named geographically. States with two districts all give them either Northern–Southern or Western–Eastern designations. Most states with three districts add a Middle District, with two exceptions: Illinois has a Central District instead of a Middle District, and Oklahoma has Northern, Western, and Eastern Districts. Of the three states with four districts, New York and Texas use all four directional designations, while California has a Central District and no Western District.
Other federal trial courts[edit]
There are other federal trial courts that have nationwide jurisdiction over certain types of cases, but the district court also has concurrent jurisdiction over many of those cases, and the district court is the only one with jurisdiction over civilian criminal cases.
The United States Court of International Trade addresses cases involving international trade and customs issues. The United States Court of Federal Claims has exclusive jurisdiction over most claims for money damages against the United States, including disputes over federal contracts, unlawful takings of private property by the federal government, and suits for injury on federal property or by a federal employee. The United States Tax Court has jurisdiction over contested pre-assessment determinations of taxes.
Clerks[edit]
Each district court appoints a clerk, who is responsible for overseeing filings made with the court, maintaining the court's records, processing fees, fines, and restitution, and managing the non-judicial work of the court, including information technology, budget, procurement, human resources, and financial. Clerks may appoint deputies, clerical assistants, and employees to carry out the work of the court. The clerk of each district court must reside in the district for which the clerk is appointed, except that the clerk of the District of Columbia and the clerk of the Southern District of New York may reside within twenty miles of their respective districts.
The Judiciary Act of 1789 authorized the Supreme Court and the judge of each U.S. District Court to appoint a clerk to assist with the administration of federal judicial business in those courts. The clerk for each district court was to also serve as clerk of the corresponding circuit court. The Judiciary Act required each clerk to issue the writs summoning jurors and "to record the decrees, judgments and determinations of the court of which he is clerk."
The Judicial Code (28 U.S.C. § 751) provides that the clerk is appointed, and may be removed, by the court. The clerk's duties are prescribed by the statute, by the court's customs and practices, and by policy established by the Judicial Conference of the United States. The clerk is appointed by order of the court en banc to serve the entire court. The role of the clerk and deputies or assistants should not be confused with the judges' law clerks, who assist the judges by conducting research and preparing drafts of opinions.
To be eligible to serve as a clerk, a person must have a minimum of 10 years of progressively responsible administrative experience in public service or business that provides a thorough understanding of organizational, procedural, and human aspects of managing an organization, and at least 3 of the 10 years must have been in a position of substantial management responsibility. An attorney may substitute the active practice of law on a year-for-year basis for the management or administrative experience requirement. Clerks do not have to be licensed attorneys, but some courts specify that a law degree is a preference for employment.
Unlike some state courts, the power of federal courts to hear cases and controversies is strictly limited. Federal courts may not decide every case that happens to come before them. In order for a district court to entertain a lawsuit, Congress must first grant the court subject matter jurisdiction over the type of dispute in question.
The district courts exercise original jurisdiction over—that is, they are empowered to conduct trials in—the following types of cases:
For most of these cases, the jurisdiction of the federal district courts is concurrent with that of the state courts. In other words, a plaintiff can choose to bring these cases in either a federal district court or a state court. Congress has established a procedure whereby a party, typically the defendant, can "remove" a case from state court to federal court, provided that the federal court also has original jurisdiction over the matter (meaning that the case could have been filed in federal court initially).[16] If the party that initially filed the case in state court believes that removal was improper, that party can ask the district court to "remand" the case to the state court system. For certain matters, such as patent and copyright infringement disputes and prosecutions for federal crimes, the jurisdiction of the district courts is exclusive of that of the state courts, meaning that only federal courts can hear those cases.[note 2]
In addition to their original jurisdiction, the district courts have appellate jurisdiction over a very limited class of judgments, orders, and decrees.[17]
Appeals[edit]
Generally, a final ruling by a district court in either a civil or a criminal case can be appealed to the United States court of appeals in the federal judicial circuit in which the district court is located, except that some district court rulings involving patents and certain other specialized matters must be appealed instead to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and in a very few cases the appeal may be taken directly to the United States Supreme Court.