Extension of District Court Jurisdiction Under § 1110 of the

Federal Aviation Act

Section 1110 of the Federal Aviation Act authorizes the President to extend that Act to 

areas outside the United States, but does not authorize an analogous extension of the 

geographic jurisdiction of a district court for purposes of enforcing certain of the Act’s 

provisions. An executive order extending the Act to the Trust Territory of the Pacific 

Islands (TTPI) would make its provisions part of the law of the TTPI, and enforceable 

through the T TPI judicial system.

August 27, 1981

MEMORANDUM OPINION FOR THE ASSISTANT CHIEF 

COUNSEL, FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION

This responds to your request for the guidance of this Office on the 

question whether the President has authority under § 1110 of the Federal Aviation Act of 1958, as amended (49 U.S.C. § 1510) (Act), to 

extend by executive order a judicial district of the United States in 

support of a geographical extension of the Act by executive order. You 

understand that our response to your inquiry was delayed in view of 

the difficulties you had in ascertaining the manner under which similar 

problems were solved under Executive Order No. 11,326, 3 C.F.R. 617 

(1966-1970 Comp.), which extended parts of the Federal Aviation Act 

to the Ryukyu Islands. We have been advised now that the issue did 

not arise at that time because the provisions of the Federal Aviation 

Act under which this problem becomes critical were not extended to 

the Ryukyu Islands.

Section 1110 of the Federal Aviation Act, 49 U.S.C. § 1510, provides:

Whenever the President determines that such action 

would be in the national interest, he may, to the extent, in 

the manner, and for such periods of time as he may 

consider necessary, extend the application of this Act to 

any areas of land or water outside of the United States 

and the overlying airspace thereof in which the Federal 

Government of the United States, under international 

treaty, agreement or other lawful arrangement has the 

necessary legal authority to take such action.

Under the authority of this section, Titles III and XII of the Act 

already have been extended by Executive Order No. 10,854, 3 C.F.R.

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389 (1959-1963 Comp.), “to those areas of land or water outside the 

United States and the overlying airspace thereof over or in which the 

Federal Government of the United States . . . has appropriate jurisdiction and control.” This definition, as pointed out in your memorandum, 

includes the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI). It is now 

contemplated to extend most of the titles of the Act to the TTPI in 

order to enable aircraft owned by citizens of the Micronesian entities to 

be registered in the United States. Your agency feels that such extension of the Act to the TTPI is feasible only if the Act and the 

regulations of the Federal Aviation Administration can be fully enforced with respect to persons located in the violations occurring in the 

TTPI.

The Act provides for its enforcement largely through civil and criminal proceedings in the district courts in which the offense or violations 

are committed, or where the person committing a violation of the Act 

carries on his business. §§ 903, 904, 1007 (49 U.S.C. §§ 1473, 1474, 

1487). Because the TTPI is not within any federal judicial district, the 

question arises how the Act can be effectively enforced in the TTPI.1 

This gives rise to the question whether the President’s authority under 

§ 1110 of the Act includes the power both to extend the Act to areas 

outside the United States and the power to extend the geographic 

jurisdiction of a district court to an area outside the United States to 

which the Act has been made applicable.

In our view this question must be answered in the negative. The 

jurisdiction of the federal district courts is purely statutory. Section 

1110 does not expressly confer on the President the power to extend 

the geographical jurisdiction of the district courts, and such power is 

not easily implied from the language of that section. Moreover, it 

cannot be said that this power follows by necessary implication because 

§1110 would be nugatory in the absence of a judicial forum in which 

the extension of the Act could be enforced. The experience of Executive Order Nos. 10,854 and 11,326 shows that some titles of the Act can 

be extended without a concomitant extension of the jurisdiction of a 

federal court. In addition, § 903(a) provides for a forum for some 

violations of the Act outside the United States. See supra note 1.

Our conclusion that § 1110 of the Act does not confer on the President the power to enlarge the geographic jurisdiction of a federal 

district court, however, does not mean that there is no available means 

of enforcing the provisions of the Act in the event it is extended to the

1 Section 903 provides that where an “offense is committed out of the jurisdiction of any particular 

State or district, the trial shall be in the district where the offender. . . is arrested or is first brought ” 

This provision does not appear to be sufficiently effective in the case of non-resident aliens.

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TTPI. According to § 101(2) of Title I of the Trust Territory Code 

(1970):

(2) such laws of the United States, as shall, by their own 

force, be in effect in the Trust Territory, including the 

Executive Orders of the President and orders of the Secretary of the Interior

have the effect of law in the TTPI. An executive order extending the 

Act to the TTPI therefore would be a part of the law of the TTPI and 

judicially enforceable there. However, since the judicial system of the 

TTPI is controlled by orders of the Secretary of the Interior, we would 

suggest that you consult with the Office of the Solicitor of the Interior 

on the best method of conferring enforcement jurisdiction on the TTPI 

High Court.

L a r r y L . Sim m s

Deputy Assistant Attorney General

Office o f Legal Counsel

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