U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit D.C. Cir.

Congress created the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia in 1893, and it became part of the federal circuit system in the twentieth century. It covers only the District of Columbia, the smallest geographic circuit, with eleven authorized judgeships. Its importance comes not from geography but from its docket, which is dominated by challenges to the actions of federal agencies.

Many federal statutes allow challenges to agency rules and orders to be filed directly in the D.C. Circuit, and some require it. As a result it hears major cases on environmental regulation, energy, telecommunications, labor relations, national security, elections law, and separation of powers, and its decisions shape how the Administrative Procedure Act is applied across the government. Because the Supreme Court reviews only a small fraction of cases, the D.C. Circuit is often the final word on how much power an agency has.

Its significance has made it a pipeline to the Supreme Court: Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, along with the late Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, all served on it. Those stakes also made it a battleground over nominations. In November 2013 Senate Democrats eliminated the filibuster for lower-court nominees after Republicans blocked President Obama's picks for the court.