The United States District Court for the Southern 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, S.D. Ill.) is a

federal district court The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district, which each cover one U.S. state or, in some cases, a portion of a state. Each district cou ...

covering approximately the southern third of the state of Illinois. Appeals from the Southern 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 ...

). It has three courthouses, at Benton,

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, and

East St. Louis East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the f ...

. At present, four judges are assigned to this district.

History

The

United States District Court for the District of Illinois The following are former United States district courts, which ceased to exist because they were subdivided into smaller units. With the exception of California, each of these courts initially covered an entire U.S. state, and was subdivided as the ...

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 bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

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 act established a single office for a judge to preside over the court. Initially, the court was not within any existing judicial circuit, so the district court exercised the jurisdiction of both a district court and a circuit court, with appeals and

writs of error In law, an appeal is the process in which cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of clarifying and ...

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 placed the District of Illinois within the newly created

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 Ill ...

, and the district court resumed its normal jurisdiction, . The Southern District itself was created by a statute passed on February 13, 1855, , which subdivided the District of Illinois 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 district has since been re-organized several times. The

United States District Court for the Eastern District of Illinois The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Illinois (in case citations, E.D. Ill.) is a former federal district court for the state of Illinois. The court was established on March 3, 1905, by 33 Stat. 992. The Northern and South ...

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, , formed primarily from parts of the Southern District, and returning some counties to the Northern District.

Jurisdiction

The jurisdiction of the Southern District of Illinois comprises the following counties:

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Clark Clark is an English language surname, ultimately derived from the Latin with historical links to England, Scotland, and Ireland ''clericus'' meaning "scribe", "secretary" or a scholar within a religious order, referring to someone who was educate ...

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, Clinton,

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, Cumberland, Edwards, Effingham, Fayette,

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, Gallatin,

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, Hardin,

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, Massac, Monroe,

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, Pulaski, Randolph, Richland, Saline, St. Clair,

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, Wabash,

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, Wayne,

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, and Williamson. The district was created in 1979. It has jurisdiction over the eastern suburbs of

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

and the city of Carbondale. The United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Illinois represents the United States in civil and criminal litigation in the court. The current United States Attorney is Steven D. Weinhoeft.

Current judges

Former judges

Chief judges

Succession of seats

United States Attorneys for the Southern District of Illinois

The United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Illinois is the federal prosecuting office for cases arising in 38 counties in Southern Illinois. The Office is headquartered in Fairview Heights and also has branch offices in Benton and East St. Louis. * James R. Burgess* (April 1979 – January 1982) * Frederick J. Hess* (January 1982 – June 1993) * Clifford J. Proud (June 1993 – November 1993) * W. Charles Grace* (December 20, 1993 – January 30, 2002) * Robert J. Cleary (January 30, 2002 – May 29, 2002) * Laura J. Jones (May 30, 2002 – August 6, 2002) * Miriam F. Miquelon* (August 7, 2002 – September 1, 2003) * Richard E. Byrne (September 2, 2003 – November 15, 2003) * Ronald J. Tenpas* (November 16, 2003 – November 20, 2005) * Edward E. McNally (November 21, 2005 – March 11, 2006) * Randy G. Massey (March 12, 2006 – November. 4, 2007) * Courtney Cox (November 5, 2007 – August 26, 2010) * Stephen R. Wigginton* (August 27, 2010 – December 11, 2015) * James L. Porter (December 12, 2015 – July 7, 2016) * Donald S. Boyce (July 8, 2016 – July 22, 2018) * Steven D. Weinhoeft (July 23, 2018 – June 21, 2022) * Rachelle Aud Crowe* (June 21, 2022 – present) (*) Presidential appointment

References

External links

United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois Official Website

United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois Illinois, Southern District Illinois law Metro East Carbondale, Illinois 1855 establishments in Illinois East St. Louis, Illinois Courthouses in Illinois Courts and tribunals established in 1855