From one to 27 judges sit in each of the district courts. Depending on case load, a judge from one district may temporarily sit in another district. Congress fixes the boundaries of the districts according to population, size and volume of work. Some of the smaller states constitute a district by themselves, while the larger states, such as New York, California and Texas, have four districts each. Except in the District of Columbia, judges must be residents of the district in which they permanently serve.
District courts hold their sessions at periodic intervals in different cities of the district.
Most cases and controversies heard by these courts involve federal offenses such as misuse of the mails, theft of federal property, and violations of pure food, banking and counterfeiting laws. These are the only federal courts where grand juries indict those accused of crimes, and juries decide the cases. Text prepared for The American Revolution - an .HTML project. All rights reserved.