The United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (in

case citation Case citation is a system used by legal professionals to identify past court case decisions, either in series of books called reporters or law reports, or in a neutral style that identifies a decision regardless of where it is reported. Case c ...

s, N.D. Ill.) is the federal trial-level court with jurisdiction over the northern counties of

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...

. Appeals from the Northern District of Illinois are taken to the

United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (in case citations, 7th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the courts in the following districts: * Central District of Illinois * Northern District of ...

(except for

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

claims and claims against the U.S. government under the

Tucker Act The Tucker Act (March 3, 1887, ch. 359, , ) is a federal statute of the United States by which the United States government has waived its sovereign immunity with respect to certain lawsuits. The Tucker Act may be divided into the "Big" Tucker A ...

, which are appealed to the

Federal Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (in case citations, Fed. Cir. or C.A.F.C.) is a United States court of appeals that has special appellate jurisdiction over certain types of specialized cases in the U.S. federal court ...

). The court is divided into two geographical divisions: The eastern division includes

Cook Cook or The Cook may refer to: Food preparation * Cooking, the preparation of food * Cook (domestic worker), a household staff member who prepares food * Cook (professional), an individual who prepares food for consumption in the food industry * ...

, DuPage, McHenry, Grundy, Kane, Kendall, La Salle,

Lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

, and

Will Will may refer to: Common meanings * Will and testament, instructions for the disposition of one's property after death * Will (philosophy), or willpower * Will (sociology) * Will, volition (psychology) * Will, a modal verb - see Shall and wi ...

counties. Its sessions are held in

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and Wheaton. The western division includes Boone, Carroll, De Kalb, Jo Daviess,

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, Ogle,

Stephenson Stephenson is a medieval patronymic surname meaning "son of Stephen". The earliest public record is found in the county of Huntingdonshire in 1279. There are variant spellings including Stevenson. People with the surname include: * Ashley Steph ...

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, and Winnebago. Its sessions are held in Freeport and Rockford. The United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois represents the United States in civil and criminal litigation in the court. The current United States Attorney is John R. Lausch Jr. since November 22, 2017.

History

The United States District Court for the District of Illinois was established by a statute passed by the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is Bicameralism, bicameral, composed of a lower body, the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives, and an upper body, ...

on March 3, 1819, .Asbury Dickens, ''A Synoptical Index to the Laws and Treaties of the United States of America'' (1852), p. 393.U.S. District Courts of Illinois, Legislative history
''

Federal Judicial Center The Federal Judicial Center is the education and research agency of the United States federal courts. It was established by in 1967, at the recommendation of the Judicial Conference of the United States. According to , the main areas of respo ...

''. 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 The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

. In 1837, Congress created the

, placing it in

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and giving it jurisdiction over the District of Illinois, . The Northern District itself was created by a statute passed on February 13, 1855, , which subdivided the District of Illinois into the Northern and the

Southern Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express, M ...

Districts. The boundaries of the District and the seats of the courts were set forth in the statute: 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 Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known a ...

District, , formed primarily from parts of the Southern District, and returning some counties to the Northern District. The Northern District of Illinois, which contains the entire

Chicago metropolitan area The Chicago metropolitan area, also colloquially referred to as Chicagoland, is a metropolitan area in the Midwestern United States. Encompassing 10,286 sq mi (28,120 km2), the metropolitan area includes the city of Chicago, its suburbs and hin ...

, accounts for 1,531 of the 1,828 public corruption convictions in the state between 1976 and 2012, almost 84%, also making it the federal district with the most public corruption convictions in the nation between 1976 and 2012.

Cases

It is one of the busiest federal trial courts in the nation. Famous cases have included those of

Al Capone Alphonse Gabriel Capone (; January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947), sometimes known by the nickname "Scarface", was an American gangster and businessman who attained notoriety during the Prohibition era as the co-founder and boss of the ...

and the Chicago Eight.

Current judges

Vacancies and pending nominations

Former judges

Chief judges

Succession of seats

List of U.S. Attorneys since 1857

* Augustus M. Herrington, 1857–1858 * Henry S. Fitch, 1858–1861 * Edwin C. Larned, 1861 * Joseph O. Glover, 1869 * Mark Bangs, 1875–1879 * Joseph B. Seake, 1879–1884 * Richard S. Tuthill, 1884–1886 * William G. Ewing, 1886–1890 * Thomas E. Milchrist, 1891–1893 * Sherwood Dixon, 1893–1894 *

John C. Black John Charles Black (January 27, 1839 – August 17, 1915) was a Democratic U.S. Congressman from Illinois. He received the Medal of Honor for his actions as a Union Army lieutenant colonel and regimental commander at the Battle of Prairie Grove ...

, 1895–1899 * Solomon H. Bethea, 1899–1905 * Charles B. Morrison, 1905–1906 * Edwin W. Sims, 1906–1911 *

James Herbert Wilkerson James Herbert Wilkerson (December 11, 1869 – September 30, 1948) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Education and career Born in Savannah, Missouri, Wilkerson receiv ...

, 1911–1914 * Charles F. Clyne, 1914–1922 * Edwin A. Olson, 1922–1927 *

George E. Q. Johnson George E. Q. Johnson (July 11, 1874 – September 19, 1949) was a United States Attorney in Chicago, Illinois who won tax evasion convictions of Al Capone and several of his associates. He briefly served as a United States district judge of the ...

, 1927–1931 * Dwight H. Green, 1931–1935 * Michael L. Igoe, 1935–1938 * William Joseph Campbell, 1938–1940 * J. Albert Woll, 1940–1947 *

Otto Kerner Jr. Otto Kerner Jr. (August 15, 1908 – May 9, 1976) was an American jurist and politician who served as the 33rd governor of Illinois from 1961 to 1968 and a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circui ...

, 1947–1954 * Irwin N. Cohen, 1954 * Robert Tieken, 1954–1961 * James P. O'Brien, 1961–1963 * Frank E. McDonald, 1963–1964 *

Edward Hanrahan Edward Vincent Hanrahan (March 11, 1921 – June 9, 2009) was an American attorney and politician who served as Cook County State's Attorney from 1968 to 1972. Hanrahan had been a prospective successor to Mayor of Chicago Richard J. Daley. ...

, 1964–1968 *

Tom Foran Thomas Aquinas Foran (January 11, 1924 – August 6, 2000) was a United States Attorney best known as the chief prosecutor in the Chicago Seven conspiracy trial in which seven defendants, including Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman, David Dellinger, Re ...

, 1968–1970 * William J. Bauer, 1970–1971 * James R. Thompson, 1971–1975 *

Samuel K. Skinner Samuel Knox Skinner (born June 10, 1938) is an American politician, lawyer, and businessman. Skinner served as U.S. Secretary of Transportation and White House Chief of Staff under President George H. W. Bush. Prior to the Bush administration ...

, 1975–1977 * Thomas P. Sullivan, 1977–1981 * Gregory C. Jones, 1981 * Dan K. Webb, 1981–1985 * Anton R. Valukas, 1985–1989 * Ira A. Raphaelson, 1989–1990 * Fred Foreman, 1990–1993 * Michael J. Shepard, 1993 * Jim Burns, 1993–1997 * Scott R. Lassar, 1997–2001 *

Patrick Fitzgerald Patrick J. Fitzgerald (born December 22, 1960) is an American lawyer and partner at the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom since October 2012. For more than a decade, until June 30, 2012, Fitzgerald was the United States Attorney ...

, 2001–2012 * Gary S. Shapiro, 2012–2013 * Zachary T. Fardon, 2013–2017 * Joel R. Levin, 2017 * John R. Lausch Jr., 2017–present

References

External links

*
United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Official Website

Office of Special Counsel, Northern District of Illinois
{{DEFAULTSORT:United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Illinois, Northern District Organizations based in Illinois 1855 establishments in Illinois Chicago Rockford, Illinois Courthouses in Illinois Courts and tribunals established in 1855