United States district court

This article is about the district courts of the U.S. federal judicial system. For the district courts of various U.S. states' judicial systems, see Courts of the United States § Courts by state of the United States.

Map of the boundaries of the United States district courts within each of the 13 circuits of the United States courts of appeals. All district courts lie within the boundary of a single jurisdiction, usually in a state (heavier lines). Some states have more than one district court (dotted lines denote those jurisdictions)
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The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district. Each district covers one U.S. state or a portion of a state. There is at least one federal courthouse in each district, and many districts have more than one. District court decisions are appealed to the U.S. court of appeals for the circuit in which they reside, except for certain specialized cases that are appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit or directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.

District courts are courts of law, equity, and admiralty, and can hear both civil and criminal cases. But unlike U.S. state courts, federal district courts are courts of limited jurisdiction, and can only hear cases that involve disputes between residents of different states, questions of federal law, or federal crimes.