United States District Court for the District of Columbia

The United States District Court for the District of Columbia (in case citations, D.D.C.) is a federal district court in the District of Columbia. It also occasionally handles (jointly with the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii and the High Court of American Samoa) federal issues that arise in the territory of American Samoa, which has no local federal court or territorial court. Appeals from the District are taken to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (except for patent claims, and claims against the U.S. government under the Tucker Act, which are appealed to the Federal Circuit). the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia is Matthew M. Graves. History 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 United States circuit court or a local criminal court. In 1936, Congress renamed the court the District Court of the United States for the District of Columbia. Its current name was adopted in 1948, and from then on justices were known as judges.