There are 94 U.S. district courts in the federal judicial system. Eighty-nine of them sit in the 50 states, one covers the District of Columbia, and one each serves Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands.1United States Courts. About U.S. District Courts Every state has at least one, and the most populous states have as many as four.
How the 94 Districts Are Distributed
Congress sets district boundaries based loosely on population and caseload. Most states have one district, or are split into two or three. California, Texas, and New York each carry four, labeled Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western.1United States Courts. About U.S. District Courts Small states like Delaware, Rhode Island, and Montana need only one.
Districts can be split further into divisions, which are sub-geographic areas where the court holds sessions. The Northern District of Florida, for example, covers 23 counties across four divisions, with offices in Tallahassee, Pensacola, and Gainesville. Divisions exist for convenience, so that litigants and witnesses don’t have to cross an entire state to attend proceedings.
The five non-state districts round out the total. The District of Columbia’s court handles a heavy share of cases involving the federal government itself, since so many agencies are headquartered there. Puerto Rico’s court operates much like any state-based district court. The three remaining territorial courts rest on a different legal footing.
Article III Courts and Territorial Courts
Most of the 94 are established under Article III of the Constitution, which gives their judges lifetime appointments during “good behavior.” The 89 state-based courts, plus the courts in the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, all fall into this category.
The courts in Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Virgin Islands work differently. Congress created them under its authority to govern territories, and their judges serve fixed terms rather than for life. The district judge in Guam serves a ten-year term.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 48 USC 1424b – Appointment of Judge, Tenure, Removal, Compensation The same ten-year term applies in the Northern Mariana Islands, where the judge is appointed by the President with Senate confirmation.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 48 US Code 1821 – District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands Despite the structural differences, these territorial courts hear the same kinds of federal cases as the Article III districts.
The Statutory Basis for the Count
Federal law spells out each district court. Title 28 of the U.S. Code provides that each judicial district shall have “a court of record known as the United States District Court for the district.”4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 132 – Creation and Composition of District Courts Sections 81 through 131 of the same title define the geographic boundaries of every district, state by state, from Alabama through Wyoming.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC Chapter 5 – District Courts
Congress keeps the power to redraw those boundaries, create new districts, or add judgeships as caseloads shift. The total of 94 has been stable for decades, but the number of authorized judgeships inside those districts can change. As of 2023 reporting, there were 677 authorized Article III district judgeships nationwide.6United States Courts. Status of Article III Judgeships – Judicial Business 2023
What District Courts Do
District courts are where federal cases start. They have original jurisdiction, meaning they’re the first court to hear the facts, weigh evidence, and reach a decision. Trials happen here: witnesses testify, documents come in, juries deliberate, and the judge rules on motions and instructs the jury on the law. In bench trials, the judge decides the outcome.
Not every dispute belongs in federal court. Two main paths get a case through the door. The first is federal question jurisdiction, which covers cases involving the U.S. Constitution, a federal statute, or a treaty.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 US Code 1331 – Federal Question A civil rights claim under a federal anti-discrimination law, a prosecution for a federal drug offense, or a patent dispute all qualify.
The second is diversity jurisdiction, which applies to disputes between citizens of different states where more than $75,000 is at stake. The theory is that a neutral federal forum prevents home-state bias. For class actions, the threshold jumps to more than $5 million in aggregate.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1332 – Diversity of Citizenship, Amount in Controversy, Costs
Collectively, the 94 courts handle hundreds of thousands of cases each year, from immigration enforcement and securities fraud to drug trafficking and contract disputes. A single district might hear a patent infringement trial in the morning and a sentencing hearing for a white-collar fraud case in the afternoon.
How District Courts Fit Into the Larger System
The 94 district courts are grouped into 12 regional circuits, plus the Federal Circuit, for a total of 13 federal courts of appeals.9United States Courts. About Federal Courts – Court Role and Structure A party that loses at the district court generally has the right to appeal to the court of appeals for its circuit.
The appellate court doesn’t retry the case. It reviews the record for legal mistakes. Legal conclusions get a fresh look, with no deference to the trial judge’s reasoning. Factual findings get much more respect: an appellate court will overturn them only if they are “clearly erroneous,” meaning the reviewing judges are left with a firm conviction that the trial court got it wrong. The trial judge, after all, watched the witnesses and sat through the evidence firsthand. That division keeps the district court in its role as the fact-finder while ensuring the law is applied consistently across the districts within each circuit.
Each district also includes a U.S. bankruptcy court operating as a unit of the district court, with 90 bankruptcy courts in total.10United States Courts. About U.S. Bankruptcy Courts Together with the district judges, magistrate judges, and senior judges who staff them, these 94 trial-level courts carry the day-to-day workload of the federal judiciary.