Location Urbana, Illinois Judges assigned 4 | Appeals to Seventh Circuit Chief Judge James E. Shadid | |
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Established October 2, 1978 (1978-10-02) | ||
The U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois (in case citations, C.D. Ill.) serves the residents of forty-six counties from its four courthouses. The counties are: Adams, Brown, Bureau, Cass, Champaign, Christian, Coles, DeWitt, Douglas, Edgar, Ford, Fulton, Greene, Hancock, Henderson, Henry, Iroquois, Kankakee, Knox, Livingston, Logan, McDonough, McLean, Macoupin, Macon, Marshall, Mason, Menard, Mercer, Montgomery, Morgan, Moultrie, Peoria, Piatt, Pike, Putnam, Rock Island, Sangamon, Schuyler, Scott, Shelby, Stark, Tazewell, Vermilion, Warren, and Woodford counties.
The courthouses are in Peoria, Rock Island, Springfield, and Urbana.
Appeals are taken to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. government under the Tucker Act, which are appealed to the Federal Circuit).
The current Acting United States Attorney is Patrick D. Hansen.
History
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, 3 Stat. 502. 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, 5 Stat. 176.
On February 13, 1855, by 10 Stat. 606, the District of Illinois was subdivided into Northern and the Southern Districts. An Eastern District was created on March 3, 1905 by 33 Stat. 992, 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 the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois District, 92 Stat. 883. The newly created Central District was formed primarily from parts of the Southern District, and returned some counties to the Northern District. Some judges from both the Eastern and Southern Districts were transferred to the Central District by operation of law.