Editing United States district court (section)

==Legal basis==

Unlike the U.S. Supreme Court, which was expressly established by [[Article Three of the United States Constitution|Article III of the Constitution]], the district courts were established by Congress pursuant to authority delegated by Article III<ref group="note">Article III of the Constitution provides that the "judicial power of the United States, shall be vested in . . . such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish."</ref> through the enacting of a federal statute, the [[Judiciary Act of 1789]]. There is no constitutional requirement that district courts exist at all.<ref name="Pfander_Page_83" />

During the drafting and ratification of the [[Constitution of the United States|Constitution]], some opponents of a strong federal judiciary argued that the federal courts ought to be limited to the Supreme Court, which would hear appeals only from state courts.  In other words, the state courts would be treated as [[Federal tribunals in the United States|federal tribunals]] under Article I of the Constitution for the purpose of hearing disputes under federal law, but their judges would not become officers of the federal government.<ref name="Pfander_Page_83">{{cite book |last1=Pfander |first1=James |title=One Supreme Court: Supremacy, Inferiority, and the Judicial Department of the United States |date=2009 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=9780195340334 |page=83 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yHpVDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA83 |access-date=August 11, 2023}}</ref>  [[Edward Carrington]] advocated this position in a letter to [[James Madison]], and it was also discussed by [[Alexander Hamilton]] in [[Federalist No. 81]].<ref name="Pfander_Page_83" />  However, this view did not prevail, and the first Congress created the district court system that is still in place today.<ref name="Pfander_Page_83" />  Pursuant to the Constitution, nonetheless, [[State court (United States)|state courts]] retain the power of [[concurrent jurisdiction]] in most federal matters.<ref>{{Cite report |url=https://www.ncsc.org/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/74207/The-Role-of-State-Courts-in-our-Federal-System.pdf |title=The Role of State Courts in our Federal System |pages=6–10 |publisher=National Center for State Courts |date=January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220303190237/https://www.ncsc.org/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/74207/The-Role-of-State-Courts-in-our-Federal-System.pdf |archive-date=March 3, 2022 |url-status=live }}</ref>

When the Act was first passed, there were thirteen districts created among the eleven states which had ratified the Constitution by that point. When North Carolina and Rhode Island voted to ratify, a district was created for each of them, bringing the number of districts to fifteen.

The [[Territories of the United States|territories]] ([[insular area]]s) of [[Guam]], the [[Northern Mariana Islands]], and the [[United States Virgin Islands]] each have one territorial court; these courts are called "district courts" and exercise the same jurisdiction as district courts,<ref name="USGOV">{{cite web |last=Article III Judges Division |date=2001-08-01 |title=An Introduction for Judges and Judicial Administrators in Other Countries |url=http://www.uscourts.gov/library/internationalbook-fedcts2.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090513052918/http://www.uscourts.gov/library/internationalbook-fedcts2.pdf |archive-date=2009-05-13 |access-date=2009-06-21 |work=The Federal Court System in the United States |publisher=Administrative Office of the United States Courts}}</ref><ref name="FJC">{{cite web |title=Territorial Courts |url=http://www.fjc.gov/history/home.nsf/page/territorial |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090514085651/http://www.fjc.gov/history/home.nsf/page/territorial |archive-date=May 14, 2009 |access-date=2009-06-21 |work=History of the Federal Judiciary |publisher=[[Federal Judicial Center]]}}</ref> but differ from district courts in that territorial courts are [[United States territorial court|Article IV courts]], with judges who serve ten-year terms rather than the [[lifetime tenure]] of judges of [[Article I and Article III tribunals|Article III courts]], such as the district court judges.<ref name="FJC" />

[[American Samoa]] does not have a district court or a federal territorial court, and so federal matters there are sent to either the [[United States District Court for the District of Columbia|District of Columbia]] or [[United States District Court for the District of Hawaii|Hawaii]].<ref name="GAO_AS">{{cite web |date=September 18, 2008 |title=American Samoa: Issues Associated with Some Federal Court Options |url=https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-08-1124T |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191016102008/https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-08-1124T |archive-date=October 16, 2019 |access-date=April 28, 2020 |publisher=U.S. Government Accountability Office}}</ref> The [[Philippines]] were previously part of the United States but were never part of the U.S. federal court system.<ref name="Go_Page_7">{{cite book |last1=Go |first1=Julian |editor1-last=Go |editor1-first=Julian |editor2-last=Foster |editor2-first=Anne L. |title=The American Colonial State in the Philippines: Global Perspectives |date=2003 |publisher=Duke University Press |location=Durham |isbn=9780822384519 |pages=1–42 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_wJ9tnBsi2YC&pg=PA7 |chapter=Introduction}} (At p. 7.)</ref>