THE MACHINE
TYPES OF FEDERAL COURTS
District Courts
Most federal cases are initially tried and decided in the U.S.
district courts, the federal courts of general trial jurisdiction.
There are 94 district courts in the 50 states, the District of
Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the territories of
Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands.
A district may itself be divided into divisions and may have
several places where the court hears cases. Each district court
also has a bankruptcy unit.
District Court Judges
With the exception of the three territorial courts, all district
court judges are appointed for life by the President with the
advice and consent of the Senate. Congress authorizes judgeships
for each district based in large part on the caseload. In each
district, the judge who has served on the court the longest and
who is under 65 years of age is designated as the chief judge.
The chief judge has administrative duties in addition to a
caseload. There currently are 646 district court judges. See also
courts of appeals judges.
Magistrate judges also handle a variety of matters including
civil consent cases, misdemeanor trials, preliminary hearings,
and pre-trial motions.
Courts of Appeals
The intermediate appellate courts in the federal judicial system
are the courts of appeals. Twelve of these courts have
jurisdiction over cases from certain geographic areas. The Court
of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has national jurisdiction over
specific types of cases.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the 12
regional courts of appeals are often referred to as circuit
courts. That is because early in the nation's history, the judges
of the first courts of appeals visited each of the courts in one
region in a particular sequence, traveling by horseback and
riding "circuit." These courts of appeals review
matters from the district courts of their geographical regions,
the U.S. Tax Court, and from certain federal administrative
agencies. A disappointed party in a district court case usually
has the right to have the case reviewed in the court of appeals
for the circuit. Appeals court judges are appointed for life by
the President with the advice and consent of the Senate.
The First through Eleventh Circuits each include three or more
states, as illustrated by a map. The U.S. Court of Appeals for
the District of Columbia hears cases arising in the District of
Columbia and has appellate jurisdiction assigned by Congress in
legislation concerning many departments of the federal government.
Judges of the Courts of Appeals
As in the district courts, the judges who sit on the courts of
appeals are appointed for life by the President with the advice
and consent of the Senate. Each court of appeals consists of six
or more judges, depending on the caseload of the courts. The
judge who has served on the court the longest and who is under 65
years of age is designated as the chief judge, and performs
administrative duties in addition to hearing cases. The chief
judge serves for a maximum term of seven years. There are 167
judges on the 12 regional courts of appeals.
The Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States consists of nine justices
appointed for life by the President with the advice and consent
of the Senate. (See Figure 2. ) One justice is appointed as the
Chief Justice and has additional administrative duties related
both to the Supreme Court and to the entire federal court system.
Each justice is assigned to one of the courts of appeals for
emergency responses.
The Supreme Court meets on the first Monday of October each year
and usually continues in session through June. The Supreme Court
receives and disposes of about 5,000 cases each year, most by a
brief decision that the subject matter is either not proper or
not of sufficient importance to warrant review by the full court.
Cases are heard en banc, which means by all the justices sitting
together in open court. Each year the court decides about 150
cases of great national importance and interest, and about three-fourths
of such decisions are announced in full published opinions.
Chief Justice of the United States:
William H. Rehnquist, entered on duty September 26, 1986
Associate Justices:
John Paul Stevens
Sandra Day O'Connor
Antonin Scalia
Anthony M. Kennedy
David H. Souter
Clarence Thomas
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Stephen G. Breyer
Retired Associate Justices
Byron R. White
Harry A. Blackmun
Lewis F. Powell, Jr.