Article III of the Constitution created the Supreme Court and left Congress to establish lower courts. The Judiciary Act of 1789 set up the first district and circuit courts, and Congress has redrawn the map many times since, adding circuits as the country grew and creating specialized courts for particular kinds of cases. The result is a national system whose shape determines which judges hear a case and which precedents bind it.
This guide walks through each tier, shows how the circuits are drawn, introduces the specialized courts, and explains the offices that administer the system and fill its seats.
Congress has created courts for particular subjects. Some are Article III courts with life-tenured judges, such as the Court of International Trade. Others are Article I courts whose judges serve fixed terms, including the Tax Court, the Court of Federal Claims, the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, and the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, made up of district judges serving rotating terms, reviews secret surveillance applications.
The Judicial Conference of the United States, chaired by the Chief Justice, sets policy for the federal courts and recommends new judgeships to Congress. The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts handles budgets and administration, the Federal Judicial Center provides research and training, and the Sentencing Commission writes the federal sentencing guidelines. Judges who meet age and service requirements can take senior status, continuing to hear cases while opening their seats for new appointments.
Congress decides how many judgeships each court has, and the last broad expansion of district judgeships came in 1990. A bill adding 66 district judgeships over a decade passed Congress in 2024 but was vetoed, reflecting the partisan stakes of who fills new seats. The Senate Judiciary Committee holds hearings on nominees, and the full Senate confirms them by simple majority. Alongside the federal system, each state runs its own courts, which hear the vast majority of criminal and civil cases.
Federal courts hear cases involving the Constitution, federal laws, the United States as a party, and disputes between citizens of different states above a set dollar amount. A case usually begins in a district court, may be appealed to a court of appeals, and only rarely reaches the Supreme Court. Judges in all three tiers are nominated by the President, confirmed by the Senate, and serve during good behavior, which in practice means for life.
The First Circuit covers New England and Puerto Rico, the Second New York, Connecticut, and Vermont, the Third the Mid-Atlantic, the Fourth the upper South Atlantic, the Fifth Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, the Sixth the Ohio Valley, the Seventh the upper Midwest, the Eighth the plains, the Ninth nine Western states and two Pacific territories, the Tenth the Rocky Mountain states, and the Eleventh Florida, Georgia, and Alabama. The D.C. Circuit hears many cases about federal agencies, and the Federal Circuit hears patent, trade, and federal claims appeals nationwide. The Ninth is the largest and the First the smallest by number of judges, and appeals are usually heard by panels of three.
District courts are the trial courts, where witnesses testify, juries sit, and most federal cases end. Small states form a single district, while California, New York, and Texas each have four. Each district has district judges, magistrate judges who handle pretrial matters and minor cases, and a bankruptcy court. Around each court work a U.S. Attorney who prosecutes federal crimes, federal public defenders, the U.S. Marshals, and probation officers.
Follow a case to the top in how a Supreme Court case works, see how judges get their seats in how federal judges are chosen, or explore the courts outside Article III in specialized federal courts.