The United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina (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, W.D.N.C.) is a
federal district court which covers the western third of
North Carolina
North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...
.
Appeals from the Western District of North Carolina are taken to the
United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (in case citations, 4th Cir.) is a United States federal court, federal court located in Richmond, Virginia, with appellate jurisdiction over the United States district court, district cou ...
(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 sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...
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 one of the 13 United States courts of appeals. It has special appellate jurisdiction over certain categories of cases in the U.S. federal ...
).
Jurisdiction
The court's jurisdiction comprises the following counties:
Alexander
Alexander () is a male name of Greek origin. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history.
Variants listed here ar ...
,
Alleghany,
Anson,
Ashe,
Avery,
Buncombe,
Burke
Burke (; ) is a Normans in Ireland, Norman-Irish surname, deriving from the ancient Anglo-Norman and Hiberno-Norman noble dynasty, the House of Burgh. In Ireland, the descendants of William de Burgh (''circa'' 1160–1206) had the surname'' de B ...
,
Caldwell,
Catawba,
Cherokee
The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...
,
Clay
Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...
,
Cleveland
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...
,
Gaston,
Graham,
Haywood,
Henderson,
Iredell,
Jackson,
Lincoln,
Macon,
Madison,
McDowell,
Mecklenburg
Mecklenburg (; ) is a historical region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal-state Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The largest cities of the region are Rostock, Schwerin, Neubrandenburg, Wismar and Güstrow. ...
,
Mitchell,
Polk,
Rutherford,
Swain,
Transylvania
Transylvania ( or ; ; or ; Transylvanian Saxon dialect, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Siweberjen'') is a List of historical regions of Central Europe, historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and ...
,
Union,
Watauga,
Wilkes and
Yancey. It has jurisdiction over the cities of
Asheville,
Charlotte,
Hickory
Hickory is a common name for trees composing the genus ''Carya'', which includes 19 species accepted by ''Plants of the World Online''.
Seven species are native to southeast Asia in China, Indochina, and northeastern India (Assam), and twelve ...
, and
Statesville.
The United States Attorney's Office for the Western District of North Carolina represents the United States in civil and criminal litigation in the court. the United States attorney is
Dena J. King.
History
The
United States District Court for the District of North Carolina was established on June 4, 1790, by .
[Asbury Dickens, ''A Synoptical Index to the Laws and Treaties of the United States of America'' (1852), p. 389.][U.S. District Courts of North Carolina, 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 re ...
''. 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.
On June 4, 1872, North Carolina was re-divided into two Districts, Eastern and Western, by .][ The presiding judge of the District of North Carolina, George Washington Brooks, was then reassigned to preside over only the Eastern District, allowing President ]Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was the 18th president of the United States, serving from 1869 to 1877. In 1865, as Commanding General of the United States Army, commanding general, Grant led the Uni ...
to appoint Robert P. Dick to be the first judge of the Western District of North Carolina. The Middle District was created from portions of the Eastern and Western Districts on March 2, 1927, by .[
]
Current judges
:
Vacancies and pending nominations
Former judges
Chief judges
Succession of seats
U.S. attorneys for the Western District
:''The Western and Eastern districts were created in 1872. D. H. Starbuck, who was serving as U.S. Attorney for the entire state, continued in office by serving as Attorney for the Western District.''
* D. H. Starbuck (1870–1876)
* Virgil S. Lusk (1876–1880)
* James E. Boyd (1880–1885)
* Hamilton C. Jones Jr. (1885–1889)
* Charles Price (1889–1893)
* Robert B. Glenn (1893–1897)
* Alfred E. Holton (1897–1914)
* William C. Hammer (1914–1920)
* Stonewall J. Durham (1920–1921)
* Frank A. Linney (1921–1927)
* Thomas J. Harkins (1927–1931)
* Charles A. Jonas (1931–1932)
* Frank Caldwell Patton (1932–1933)
* Marcus Erwin (1933–1939)
* W. Roy Francis (1939–1940)
* Theron L. Candle (1940–1945)
* David E. Henderson (1945–1948)
* Thomas E. Uzzell (1948–1953)
* James M. Baley Jr. (1953–1961)
*Hugh E. Monteith (1961)
* William Medford (1961–1969)
* James O. Israel Jr. (1969)
* Keith S. Snyder (1969–1977)
*Harold M. Edwards (1977–1981)
*Harold J. Bender (1981)
* Charles R. Brewer (1981–1987)
* Thomas J. Ashcraft (1987–1993)
*Jerry W. Miller (1993)
* Mark T. Calloway (1994–2001)
* Robert J. Conrad Jr. (2001–2004)
* Gretchen Shappert (2004–2009)
*Edward R. Ryan
See also
* Courts of North Carolina
A court is an institution, often a government entity, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and administer justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance with the rule of law.
Courts gene ...
* List of current United States district judges
The following is a list of all current judges of the United States district and territorial courts. The list includes both "active" and "senior" judges, both of whom hear and decide cases. There are 89 districts in the 50 states, with a total ...
* List of United States federal courthouses in North Carolina
References
External links
United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina
North Carolina, Western District
North Carolina law
Asheville, North Carolina
Charlotte, North Carolina
Hickory, North Carolina
1872 establishments in North Carolina
Courthouses in North Carolina
Western North Carolina
Courts and tribunals established in 1872
*