The United States District Court for the District of Columbia is the United States District Court that hears cases originating in the District of Columbia over which federal courts have original jurisdiction. Cases dealing with the laws of the District of Columbia are heard by this court only under the same circumstances that would cause a case under State law to come before a Federal court. Appeals from this court are heard by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The court was established by Congress in 1863 as the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, replacing the abolished circuit and district courts of the District of Columbia that had been in place since 1801. The court consisted of four justices, including a Chief Justice, and was granted the same powers and jurisdiction as the earlier circuit court. Any of the justices could convene a U.S. circuit court or a local criminal court. In 1936, Congress renamed the "Supreme Court of the District of Columbia" as the "District Court for the District of Columbia". It was again renamed in 1948 as the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The justices were from then on known as judges. The court sits in the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse located on Constitution Avenue, N.W., in Washington, D.C. As the District is clearly not a State, and therefore has no local District Attorney or other State's prosecutor office, local prosecutorial matters also fall into the jurisdiction of the United States Attorney. Hence, Assistant United States Attorneys are tasked with prosecution of not only federal crimes but crimes that would normally be left to the state prosecutor's discretion. This results in the District having the largest US Attorney's Office in the nation with around 250 AUSAs. The current United States Attorney for the District of Columbia is Jeffrey A. Taylor.
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| District Courts | Alabama (N, M, S) • Alaska • Arizona • Arkansas (E, W) • California (C, E, N, S) • Colorado • Connecticut • Delaware • District of Columbia • Florida (N, M, S) • Georgia (N, M, S) • Hawaii • Idaho • Illinois (N, C, S) • Indiana (N, S) • Iowa (N, S) • Kansas • Kentucky (E, W) • Louisiana (E, M, W) • Maine • Maryland • Massachusetts • Michigan (E, W) • Minnesota • Mississippi (N, S) • Missouri (E, W) • Montana • Nebraska • Nevada • New Hampshire • New Jersey • New Mexico • New York (E, N, S, W) • North Carolina (E, M, W) • North Dakota • Ohio (N, S) • Oklahoma (E, N, W) • Oregon • Pennsylvania (E, M, W) • Puerto Rico • Rhode Island • South Carolina • South Dakota • Tennessee (E, M, W) • Texas (E, N, S, W) • Utah • Vermont • Virginia (E, W) • Washington (E, W) • West Virginia (N, S) • Wisconsin (E, W) • Wyoming |
| Territorial courts | Guam • Northern Mariana Islands • Virgin Islands |
