United States District Court for the Northern District of California


The United States District Court for the Northern District of California is the [United States United States federal courts|federal courts|federal] United States district court whose jurisdiction comprises the following counties of California: Alameda, Contra Costa, Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, Marin, Mendocino, Monterey, Napa, San Benito, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, and Sonoma. The court hears cases in its courtrooms in Eureka, Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose. It is headquartered in San Francisco. Cases from the Northern District of California are appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Because it covers San Francisco and Silicon Valley, the Northern District of California has become the presumptive destination for major federal lawsuits involving "Big Tech" defendants.
These cases usually involve patent law and intellectual property law - especially in the semiconductor, telecommunications and software industries and other high technology areas, antitrust law, securities law, and technology law in general.
WWW cand.uscourts.gov

History

California was admitted as a state on September 9, 1850, and was initially divided into two districts, the Northern and the Southern, by Act of Congress approved September 28, 1850, 9 Stat. 521. The boundary line was at the 37th parallel of North Latitude. The creating act provided that:
The Act of August 31, 1852 made the Judge of the Northern District be Judge of the Southern District as well until otherwise provided, by 10 Stat. 76, 84, effectively creating a single District in all but name until an Act of January 18, 1854 provided for the appointment of a Judge for the Southern District. The Southern District of California was abolished and the State made to constitute a single district – the United States District Court for the District of California – by Act of Congress approved July 27, 1866, 14 Stat. 300.
Twenty years later, on August 5, 1886, Congress re-created the Southern District of California by 24 Stat. 308. Erskine M. Ross was appointed Judge of the new district and served until his promotion to the Circuit Judgeship, when he was succeeded by Olin Wellborn. On March 18, 1966, the Eastern and Central Districts were created from portions of the Northern and Southern Districts by 80 Stat. 75.

Current judges



United States attorney

The United States Attorney for the Northern District of California represents the United States in civil and criminal litigation in the court. the United States attorney is Patrick D Robbins.