A quick break for a lesson on the Federal Court System (2026)
Our motion to quash the subpoena was filed in a Federal District Court (the Federal District Court of Western Washington, to be exact.)
There are 94 Federal District Courts. These courts are trial courts and have at least one judge. Each state, Washington, D. C., Puerto Rico, and the territories of the Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands has at least one District Court, and states with larger populations have multiple districts.
District Courts are trial courts. When a case is decided in Federal District Court, they may be appealed to the Federal Circuit Courts. (The DOJ appealed our case to the Ninth Circuit Court.)
There are thirteen Circuit Courts. Each Circuit Court hears appeals for cases within their jurisdiction, which is usually several states or territories. Bold states are QueerDoc states.
First Circuit:
- Maine
- Massachusetts
- New Hampshire
- Puerto Rico
- Rhode Island
Second Circuit
- Connecticut
- New York
- Vermont
Third Circuit
- Delaware
- New Jersey
- Pennsylvania
- The Virgin Islands
Fourth Circuit
- Maryland
- North Carolina
- South Carolina
- Virginia
- West Virginia
Fifth Circuit
- Louisiana
- Mississippi
- Texas
Sixth Circuit
- Kentucky
- Michigan
- Ohio
- Tennessee
Seventh Circuit
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Wisconsin
Eighth Circuit
- Arkansas
- Iowa
- Minnesota
- Missouri
- Nebraska
- North Dakota
- South Dakota
Ninth Circuit: (where the appeal to our motion to quash is being heard on March 6, 2025)
- Alaska
- Arizona
- California
- Guam
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Montana
- Nevada
- Northern Mariana Islands
- Oregon
- Washington
Tenth Circuit:
- Colorado
- Kansas
- New Mexico
- Oklahoma
- Utah
- Wyoming
Eleventh Circuit:
- Alabama
- Florida
- Georgia
District of Columbia Circuit:
- Washington, D. C.
Federal Circuit:
- Court of Appeals for Veterans
- Court of Federal Claims
- Court of International Trade
United States courts of appeals. (2023, November 3). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_courts_of_appeals
Decisions made at the Circuit Court level apply to all of the states/territories in that Circuit. Some ways in which Circuit Courts take up cases are:
- A District Court case is appealed
- Multiple District Courts within one Circuit rule on similar cases and the rulings do not match
Circuit Court cases are appealed to the Supreme Court.