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United States District Court For The District Of Columbia




The court was established by Congress in 1863 as the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, replacing the abolished circuit and district courts of the District of Columbia that had been in place since 1801 . The court consisted of four justices, including a Chief Justice , and was granted the same powers and jurisdiction as the earlier circuit court. Any of the justices could convene a U.S. circuit court or a local criminal court.

In 1936 , Congress renamed the "Supreme Court of the District of Columbia" as the "District Court for the District of Columbia". It was again renamed in 1948 as the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The justices were from then on known as judges.

The court sits in the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse located on Constitution Avenue , N.W., in Washington, D.C.

As the District is clearly not a State, and therefore has no local District Attorney or other State's prosecutor office, local prosecutorial matters also fall into the jurisdiction of the United States Attorney.

Hence, Assistant United States Attorneys are tasked with prosecution of not only federal crimes but crimes that would normally be left to the state prosecutor's discretion. This results in the District having the largest US Attorney's Office in the nation with around 250 AUSAs.

The current United States Attorney for the District of Columbia is Jeffrey A. Taylor .


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