United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit


The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:
The court is based at the John Joseph Moakley Federal Courthouse in Boston, Massachusetts. Most sittings are held in Boston, where the court usually sits for one week most months of the year; in one of July or August, it takes a summer break and does not sit. The First Circuit also sits for one week each March and November at the Jose V. Toledo Federal Building and [United States Courthouse] in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, and occasionally sits at other locations within the circuit.
With six active judges and five active senior judges, the First Circuit has the fewest judges of any of the thirteen United States courts of appeals. It covers most of New England, as well as Puerto Rico. Following his retirement from the Supreme Court in 2009, Associate Justice David Souter occasionally sat on the First Circuit by designation. Former justice Stephen Breyer began to do so in 2025.

Current composition of the court



Notable decisions