Lower Federal Courts

Lower Federal Courts The structure of the federal courts was initially set by the Judiciary Act of 1789 and has been basically unchanged since the end of the nineteenth century: a set of trial courts (courts of first instance) forms the base of the pyramid, above which are the intermediate courts of appeal. At the apex sits the U.S. Supreme Court.

The trial courts in the federal system are the federal district courts. These courts have authority to hear and decide virtually all cases that the Constitution allows a federal court to resolve. The major exceptions are monetary claims against the United States, certain tax cases, duties imposed on imported goods, and matters initially heard by various federal regulatory commissions. Specialized trial courts handle these issues.

Historically, however, Congress did not authorize the federal district courts to hear those “federal questions” that challenged the constitutionality of state governmental actions. Not until after the Civil War did the district courts have general power to decide cases involving the Constitution, acts of Congress, and treaties of the United States—regardless of an alleged conflict with state law or state constitutional provisions (see Removal Act of 1875). Prior to the Civil War, the state courts resolved these conflicts between state and federal law, with the losing litigant provided an opportunity to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Each state has at least one federal district court within its boundaries and, with one exception, no district court's geographical reach extends beyond the boundary of a single state (the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming includes those portions of Idaho and Montana that are in Yellowstone National Park). In addition to the ninety district courts within the fifty states and the District of Columbia, Congress has established four others for territories of the United States: Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Marianas, and the Virgin Islands.

Three states have four district courts (California, New York, and Texas); nine others—six in the South—have three. By contrast, such relatively populous states as Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Minnesota, Arizona, and Oregon have only one. District courts bear the name of the state in which they are located, plus a geographical descriptor if the state has more than one district court: north, south, east, west, and central or middle.

The district courts are staffed by almost six hundred federal judges whom the president appoints with the consent of the Senate (see Appointment and Removal Power). Assisting the judges are magistrates, who generally have responsibility for pretrial proceedings and the trial of misdemeanors, and referees in bankruptcy. The latter are now called bankruptcy judges. District court judges appoint the magistrates for terms of eight years, and circuit court judges appoint the bankruptcy judges for terms of fourteen years.

Unlike the courts of appeals and the Supreme Court, only a single judge hears cases in the district courts. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Congress required a few cases to be heard by a district court composed of three judges, one from the district and two from the court of appeals. The jurisdiction of these three‐judge district courts was subsequently expanded so that by the mid‐1970s most three‐judge courts were hearing cases alleging violations of civil rights. Congress, however, narrowly circumscribed the use of three‐judge courts thereafter, with the result that their use almost disappeared by 1990.

Like the federal district courts, but unlike the Supreme Court, the U.S. courts of appeals are required to hear all cases that fall within their jurisdiction. As the general intermediate appellate courts for the federal system, they hear appeals from the federal district courts and the federal regulatory commissions.

The United States and its territories are divided into eleven numbered appellate circuits, plus the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Except for the District of Columbia, which has jurisdiction over the D.C. district court and most of the decisions of the various federal regulatory agencies, the other courts of appeals are composed of regional state groupings. Three are in the East: the First, Second, and Third. The South also contains three: the Fourth, Fifth, and Eleventh. Until 1981, the Eleventh Circuit was part of the Fifth. In that year, Congress divided it in half. The Sixth Circuit is a midwest‐southern hybrid, with the Seventh encompassing three Great Lakes' states. The other three circuits lie west of the Mississippi River.

Congress has created more than 150 judgeships to service these courts of appeals, with each court having at least six and as many as twenty‐six judges assigned to it. The number in each circuit reflects the circuit's caseload. Judges sit in panels of three. Occasionally, all of the circuit's judges may sit en banc to decide an unusually divisive or important case. The circuit court judges are assisted by “senior” (i.e., semiretired) judges and by district court judges who temporarily sit on a circuit court “by designation.”

A number of specialized courts of appeals also exist: the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals (see Patent), renamed as the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in 1982, the Court of International Trade (formerly the Customs Court), and the Court of Military Appeals (see Military Justice). Although decisions of these courts are important to those directly affected, they rarely have enough national or policy significance to warrant Supreme Court review.

See also Judicial Power and Jurisdiction.

Harold J. Spaeth