List of former United States district courts

The United States District Court for the District of Alabama was created on April 21, 1820, by . It was subdivided into Northern and Southern Districts on March 10, 1824, by . with legislation specifying that the Middle District Court was to be held at Tuscaloosa, the Northern District Court at Huntsville, and the Southern District Court at Mobile. Only one judge was ever appointed to the District of Alabama. ==Arkansas==

Arkansas, originally part of the Louisiana Purchase, became part of the Missouri Territory in 1812, when Louisiana became a state. When Missouri became a state in 1819, a territorial government, including a territorial court, was organized for Arkansas, taking effect on July 4, 1819. The United States District Court for the District of Arkansas was established with a single judge when Arkansas became a state, on June 15, 1836, by , 51. The court was subdivided into Eastern and the Western Districts on March 3, 1851, by . ==California==

The United States District Court for the District of California existed from 1866 to 1886. California was admitted as a state on September 9, 1850, and was initially divided into two districts, the Northern and the Southern, by Act of Congress approved September 28 . The boundary line was at the 37th parallel north. The creating act provided that: :In addition to the ordinary jurisdiction and powers of a District Court of the United States, with which the Southern District Court of New York has been invested, the said Courts be and hereby are invested respectively within the limits of its district with the exercise of concurrent jurisdiction and power in all civil cases now exercised by the Circuit Courts of the United States; and that in all cases where said Courts shall exercise such jurisdiction, appeals may be taken from the judgments, orders or decrees of said Courts to the Supreme Court of the United States. On February 27, 1851, President Millard Fillmore appointed Ogden Hoffman Jr., as the judge presiding over the Northern District. The Act of August 31, 1852, made the Judge of the Northern District be Judge of the Southern District as well until otherwise provided, by , 84, effectively creating a single District in all but name until an Act of January 18, 1854 provided for the appointment of a Judge for the Southern District. The Southern District of California was abolished and the State made to constitute one district by Act of Congress approved July 27, 1866, . Twenty years later, on August 5, 1886, Congress re-created the Southern District of California (and, by extension, the Northern District) by . Hoffman, who had continued serving as the sole district judge, again became judge of the Northern district only, there continuing in service for five more years. Erskine Mayo Ross was appointed Judge of the new Southern District and served until his promotion to the Circuit Judgeship, when he was succeeded by Olin Wellborn. On March 18, 1966, the Eastern and Central Districts were created from portions of the Northern and Southern Districts by . ==Florida==

On the same day that Florida was admitted as a state, March 3, 1845, Congress enacted legislation creating the United States District Court for the District of Florida, . On February 23, 1847, divided the jurisdiction of this court between the Northern District and a Southern District Courts with the boundary between as: :[T]hat part of the State of Florida lying south of a line drawn due east and west from the northern point of Charlotte Harbor, including the islands, keys, reefs, shoals, harbors, bays and inlets, south of said line, shall be erected into a new judicial district, to be called the Southern District of Florida; a District Court shall be held in said Southern District, to consist of one judge, who shall reside at Key West, in said district... The same statute directed the Northern District to hold court at Apalachicola, Florida, and Pensacola, Florida. On July 30, 1962, the Middle District was created from portions of the other districts by . ==Georgia==

The United States District Court for the District of Georgia was one of the original 13 courts established by the Judiciary Act of 1789, , on September 24, 1789. The District was subdivided into Northern and Southern Districts on August 11, 1848, by . The Middle District was formed from portions of those two Districts on May 28, 1926, by . ==Illinois==

The United States District Court for the District of Illinois was established by a statute passed by the United States Congress on March 3, 1819, . The act established a single office for a judge to preside over the court. Initially, the court was not within any existing judicial circuit, and appeals from the court were taken directly to the United States Supreme Court. In 1837, Congress created the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, placing it in Chicago, Illinois and giving it jurisdiction over the District of Illinois, . The District itself was eliminated by a statute passed on February 13, 1855, , under which it was subdivided into the Northern and the Southern Districts. The boundaries of the District and the seats of the courts were set forth in the statute: :The counties of Hancock, McDonough, Peoria, Woodford, Livingston, and Iroquois, and all the counties in the said State north of them, shall compose one district, to be called the northern district of Illinois, and courts shall be held for the said district at the city of Chicago; and the residue of the counties of the said State shall compose another district, to be called the southern district of Illinois, and courts shall be held for the same at the city of Springfield. The district has since been re-organized several times. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Illinois was created on March 3, 1905, by , by splitting counties out of the Northern and Southern Districts. It was later eliminated in a reorganization on October 2, 1978, which replaced it with a Central District, , also formed from parts of the Northern and Southern Districts. ==Indiana==

The United States District Court for the District of Indiana was established on March 3, 1817, by . The District was subdivided into Northern and Southern Districts on April 21, 1928, by . Of all district courts that have been subdivided, Indiana existed for the longest time as a single court, 111 years. ==Iowa==

The United States District Court for the District of Iowa was established on March 3, 1845, by . The District was subdivided into Northern and Southern Districts on July 20, 1882, by . ==Kentucky==

The United States District Court for the District of Kentucky was part of one of the original 13 courts established by the Judiciary Act of 1789, , on September 24, 1789. At the time, Kentucky was not yet a state, but was within the territory of the state of Virginia. The District was unchanged when Kentucky became a state on June 1, 1792. On February 13, 1801, the Judiciary Act of 1801, , abolished the U.S. district court in Kentucky, but the repeal of this Act restored the District on March 8, 1802, . The District was subdivided into Eastern and Western Districts on February 12, 1901, by . ==Louisiana==

On March 26, 1804, Congress organized the Territory of Orleans and created the United States District Court for the District of Orleans – the first time Congress provided a territory with a district court equal in its authority and jurisdiction to those of the states. The United States District Court for the District of Louisiana was established on April 8, 1812, by , Hall was appointed to the District of Louisiana twice. He briefly resigned from the District Court to serve as a Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court. He was shortly thereafter reappointed to the same seat on the District Court, which had remained vacant in his absence. ==Michigan==

The United States District Court for the District of Michigan was established on July 1, 1836, by , with a single judgeship. The district court was not assigned to a judicial circuit, but was granted the same jurisdiction as United States circuit courts, except in appeals and writs of error, which were the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. Due to the so-called "Toledo War", a boundary dispute with Ohio, Michigan did not become a state of the Union until January 26, 1837. On March 3, 1837, Congress passed an act that repealed the circuit court jurisdiction of the U.S. District Court for the District of Michigan, assigned the District of Michigan to the Seventh Circuit, and established a U.S. circuit court for the district, . ==Mississippi==

The United States District Court for the District of Mississippi was established on April 3, 1818, by . It existed for over twenty years, and was subdivided into Northern and Southern Districts on June 18, 1838, by : ==Missouri==

The United States District Court for the District of Missouri was established on March 16, 1822, by . However, an act of Congress passed in 1845 and upheld by the United States Supreme Court in 1851, extending federal admiralty jurisdiction to inland waterways, resulted in a substantial increase in the number of admiralty cases arising from traffic on the Mississippi River. These disputes involved "contracts of affreightment, collisions, mariners' wages, and other causes of admiralty jurisdiction", and litigants of matters arising in the port city of St. Louis found it inconvenient to travel far inland to Jefferson City for their cases to be tried. The District was therefore subdivided into Eastern and Western Districts on March 3, 1857, by . ==New Jersey==

The United States District Court for the District of New Jersey was one of the original 13 courts established by the Judiciary Act of 1789, , on September 24, 1789. The District was subdivided into the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New Jersey and the United States District Court for the Western District of New Jersey on February 13, 1801, by the Judiciary Act of 1801, , ==New York==

The United States District Court for the District of New York was one of the original 13 courts established by the Judiciary Act of 1789, , on September 24, 1789. It existed for nearly twenty-five years before, on April 9, 1814, New York was divided into Northern and Southern Districts by . These Districts were later further subdivided with the creation of Eastern District on February 25, 1865 by , and the Western District on May 12, 1900, by . ==North Carolina==

The United States District Court for the District of North Carolina has a unique history among defunct district courts. It was established on June 4, 1790, by . On June 9, 1794 it was subdivided into three districts by , but on March 3, 1797, the three districts were abolished and the single District restored by , until April 29, 1802, when the state was again subdivided into three different districts by . In both instances, these districts, unlike those with geographic designations that existed in other states, were titled by the names of the cities in which the courts sat. After the first division, they were styled the District of Edenton, the District of New Bern, and the District of Wilmington; after the second division, they were styled the District of Albemarle, the District of Cape Fear, and the District of Pamptico. However, in both instances, only one judge was authorized to serve all three districts, causing them to effectively operate as a single district. The latter combination was occasionally referred to by the cumbersome title of the United States District Court for the Albemarle, Cape Fear & Pamptico Districts of North Carolina. Judge Henry Potter's 55 years of service on this court during the period in which the state contained a single district, from April 1802 to December 1857, represents one of the longest terms ever held by a United States federal judge. On June 4, 1872, North Carolina was re-divided into two Districts, Eastern and Western, by . The Middle District was created from portions of the Eastern and Western Districts on March 2, 1927, by . ==Ohio==

The United States District Court for the District of Ohio was established on February 19, 1803, by . The District was subdivided into Northern and Southern Districts on February 10, 1855, by . ==Pennsylvania==

The United States District Court for the District of Pennsylvania was one of the original 13 courts established by the Judiciary Act of 1789, , on September 24, 1789. It was subdivided on April 20, 1818, by , into the Eastern and Western Districts, to be headquartered in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, respectively. Portions of these districts were subsequently subdivided into the Middle District on March 2, 1901, by . ==South Carolina==

The United States District Court for the District of South Carolina was one of the original 13 courts established by the Judiciary Act of 1789, , on September 24, 1789. It was subdivided into the United States District Court for the Eastern District of South Carolina and the United States District Court for the Western District of South Carolina Districts on February 21, 1823 by . and the Western District was headquartered in Greenville. The division was solely for the purposes of holding court – a single judge presided over both districts, and the act authorized no additional court staff. that South Carolina legally constituted a single judicial district. Congress made a more explicit effort to subdivide the District on March 3, 1911, by , . South Carolina was again Eastern and the Western Districts, with one judgeship authorized to serve both districts, effective January 1, 1912. Congress finally authorized an additional judgeship for the Western District, and assigned the sitting judge exclusively to the Eastern District, on March 3, 1915, by . However, on October 7, 1965, by , South Carolina was reorganized as a single judicial district with four judgeships authorized for the district court, and it has since remained a single District. Judges of the Eastern District of South Carolina: Judges of the Western District of South Carolina: ==Tennessee==

The United States District Court for the District of Tennessee was established with one judgeship on January 31, 1797, by . The judgeship was filled by President George Washington's appointment of John McNairy. Since Congress failed to assign the district to a circuit, the court had the jurisdiction of both a district court and a circuit court. Appeals from this one district court went directly to the United States Supreme Court. On February 13, 1801, in the famous "Midnight Judges" Act of 1801, , Congress abolished the U.S. district court in Tennessee, The repeal of this Act restored the District on March 8, 1802, . The District was divided into the Eastern and Western Districts on April 29, 1802. On February 24, 1807, Congress again abolished the two districts and created the United States Circuit for the District of Tennessee. On March 3, 1837, Congress assigned the judicial district of Tennessee to the Eighth Circuit. On June 18, 1839, by , Congress divided Tennessee into three districts, Eastern, Middle, and Western. Again, only one judgeship was allotted for all three districts. On July 15, 1862, Congress reassigned appellate jurisdiction to the Sixth Circuit. Finally, on June 14, 1878, Congress authorized a separate judgeship for each district of Tennessee. ==Texas==