Judicial district

“ In any judicial district a majority of the electors voting thereon may approve the establishment or discontinuance of a community court. Where a community court is approved, one community court shall be established; its divisions, number of judges and jurisdiction shall be as provided by law. (b) The question whether a community court shall be established or discontinued in any judicial district shall be placed upon the ballot in a primary election by petition which shall be in the form prescribed by the officer of the Commonwealth who under law shall have supervision over elections. ”

“ The judicial power of the State as to matters of law and equity, except as in the Constitution otherwise provided, is vested in a supreme court, district courts, county courts, justices of the peace, and such other courts as may be provided by law. There are three supreme court judges, elected for nine years; the district judges—one or more for each judicial district—elected for six years; and a judge for every county, elected every three years. A district attorney is elected triennially in every judicial district. ”

“ The state shall he divided into eight judicial districts, of which the city of New York shall be one; the others to be bounded by county lines, and to be compact and equal in population, as nearly as may be. There shall be four justices of the supreme court in each district, and as many more in the district composed of the city of New York as may, from time to time, be authorized by law, but not to exceed in the whole such number in proportion to its population as shall be in conformity. with the number of such judges in the residue of the state, in proportion to its population. ”

“ The State shall be divided into nine judicial districts, for each of which a Judge shall be chosen; and there shall be held a Superior Court in each county at least twice in each year, to continue for such time in each county as may be prescribed by law. But the General Assembly may reduce or increase the number of districts.
SEC. 11. Every Judge of the Superior Court shall reside in the district for which he is elected. The Judges shall preside in the Courts of the different districts successively, but no Judge shall hold the Courts in the same district oftener than once in four years ”

“ To permit federal district courts to establish administrative procedures de novo would, of course, render nugatory Congress' effort to insure that administrative procedures be designed by those most familiar with the regulatory problems involved. Thus, in providing for judicial review of administrative procedural rule-making, Congress has not empowered district courts to substitute their judgment for that of the agency. ”

“ Another common requirement is residence within the state, or even residence within the judicial district. For judges of the higher courts it is the custom to demand membership in the legal profession. Judges may be removed by impeachment, and, in a few states, by use of the Recall.
612. OTHER COURT OFFICIALS.—The district or prosecuting attorney is an important official. Generally he is chosen by the voters of the county, though in some instances he is elected from larger areas. The district attorney represents the state in all criminal cases, and conducts the prosecution. ”

“ After the case had been docketed, and on January 22, 1901, an act was approved, which divided the state of West Virginia into two judicial districts, called the northern and southern judicial districts, and provided that the district judge of the district of West Virginia in office at the time the act took effect should be the district judge for the northern judicial district of West Virginia as thereby constituted. ”

“ This, we think, is untenable. Rightly construed, the Act of 1925-as shown especially by the specific provisions of section 5, including the reference to section 59 of the Judicial Code-did not create a new court for a new district, but merely amended section 101 of the Judicial Code by limiting the territorial jurisdiction of the court for the Eastern District, for most purposes, to certain counties, while continuing its original territorial jurisdiction for the purpose of commencing and continuing prosecutions for crimes and offenses previously committed therein. ”

“ This is a horse soon curried. Congress, in conferring jurisdiction on the district courts in cases based solely on diversity of citizenship, has been explicit to confine such suits to 'the judicial district where all plaintiffs or all defendants reside.' 28 U.S.C. § 1391 (a) , 28 U.S.C.A. § 1391 (a) . ”

“ As to natural persons, therefore, it cannot be doubted that the effect of this act, read in the light of earlier acts upon the same subject and of the judicial construction thereof, is that the phrase 'district of the residence of' a person is equivalent to 'district whereof he is an inhabitant,' and cannot be construed as giving jurisdiction, by reason of citizenship, to a circuit court held in a state of which neither party is a citizen, but, on the contrary, restricts the jurisdiction to the district in which one of the parties resides within the state of which he is a citizen ”

“ The majority contends that magistrate jury selection raises no Article III structural difficulties, because " 'the entire process takes place under the district court's total control and jurisdiction.' " Ante, at 937, quoting Raddatz, supra, 447 U.S., at 681, 100 S.Ct., at 2415. However, as Raddatz and Schor underscore, the requirement of "the district court's total control and jurisdiction" must include the availability of meaningful judicial review of the magistrate's actual rulings at jury selection. ”

“ It is undoubtedly true that judicial notice is not taken of purely private concerns, when they are not connected with, or necessarily involved in, a matter of a public nature; but it is otherwise when they are so connected or involved. For example, a court will take notice of the boundaries of the state or territory where it holds its sessions, and of judicial districts, and municipal subdivisions within it. ”

“ Indeed, at this stage of the game, the canon of strict construction produces the ironic result of compelling a relatively greater expenditure of judicial energies in assessing our jurisdiction over the remainder of the criminal cases pending in the district courts of the Nation at the time of the most recent amendment than would be involved in deciding those cases on the merits. Nonetheless, this very Term we have indicated that we intend to adhere to the rules of construction evolved by this Court during the long and tortuous history of this statute. ”

“ There is no constitutional provision restricting the authority of a district judge to any particular territorial limits. District courts are solely the caeation of statute, and the place in which a judge thereof may exercise jurisdiction is subject absolutely to the control of congress. ”

“ The amendment proposed to the constitution by the Nineteenth General Assembly, granting suffrage to women, was defeated by this Legislature, while the other proposed amendments were adopted changing the time of holding elections, from October to November; permitting any General Assembly to reorganize the judicial districts of the State; providing that a grand jury might consist of any number not less than five nor more than fifteen, to be determined by the General Assembly; and providing for the election of county attorneys. ”

“ But it holds that a district court may abdicate its jurisdiction when a defendant shows to the satisfaction of a district court that it would be more convenient and less vexatious for the defendant if the trial were held in another jurisdiction. Neither the venue statute nor the statute which has governed jurisdiction since 1789 contains any indication or implication that a federal district court, once satisfied that jurisdiction and venue requirements have been met, may decline to exercise its jurisdiction. ”

“ And it is incongruous to consider, as the Court's holding would seem to imply, that in the 'interest of justice' Congress sought in § 1406 (a) to deal with the transfer of cases where both venue and jurisdiction are lacking in the district where the action is commenced, while neglecting to provide any comparable alleviative measures for the plaintiff who selects a district where venue is proper but where personal jurisdiction cannot be obtained. ”

“ No set of standards can guide a court which has to decide how many legislative districts a State shall have, or what the shape of the districts shall be, or where to draw a particular district line. No judicially manageable standard can determine whether a State should have single member districts or multi-member districts or some combination of both. No such standard can control the balance between keeping up with population shifts and having stable districts. ”

“ Congress has no power to abolish the Supreme Court, or to erect another tribunal superior to it. This court sits at Washington, and is a final court of appeal from the inferior national courts of the federal empire. A system of inferior courts, inaugurated by Congress, has existed for about sixty years. Each State for purposes of national jurisprudence is constituted as a district; some few large States, such as New York, Pennsylvania, and Illinois, being divided into two districts. Each district has one district court presided over by one judge. ”

“ That Congress may, in the exercise of its legislative discretion, fix the venue of a civil action in a federal court in one district, and authorize the process to be issued to another district in which the defendant resides or is found, is not open to question. ”

“ The act of June 6, 1900, is entitled 'An Act Making Further Provision for a Civil Government for Alaska, and for Other Purposes.' It provides for a governor and other officers, and its provisions for a court are as follows:
'There is hereby established a district court for the district, which shall be a court of general jurisdiction in civil, criminal, equity, and admiralty causes; and three district judges shall be appointed for the district, who shall, during their terms of office, reside in the devisions of the district to which they may be respectively assigned by the President. ”

“ The Court's reapportionment decisions have pressed district courts onto an uncharted and highly sensitive field of federal-state relations with little more to guide them than the elusive 'one-person-one-vote' aphorism. District courts, as courts of first instance, must necessarily fashion remedies for themselves, and the passage of time and the variety of remedies chosen by them may ultimately help this Court to wend its way through this treacherous constitutional terrain. ”

“ Of course, the district, as a place of trial, must be ascertained by law before the crime was committed, and a person charged with a crime cannot be tried for it in a district which did not include, when the crime was committed, the place where it was committed. Whether a change in the boundary of a state, and thus of a district, after the commission of a crime, and before a trial for it, would have the effect of preventing a trial in any district, is a question which must be decided when it shall arise. ”