United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island

The United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island (in case citation

Case citation

Case citation is the system used in many countries to identify the decisions in past court cases, either in special series of books called reporters or law reports, or in a 'neutral' form which will identify a decision wherever it was reported...

s, D.R.I.) is the Federal district court

United States district court

The United States district courts are the general trial courts of the United States federal court system. Both civil and criminal cases are filed in the district court, which is a court of law, equity, and admiralty. There is a United States bankruptcy court associated with each United States...

whose jurisdiction is the state of Rhode Island

Rhode Island

The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...

. The District Court was created in 1790 when Rhode Island ratified the Constitution. The Federal Courthouse

Federal Building (Providence, Rhode Island)

The Federal Building is a historic post office, courthouse and custom house on Kennedy Plaza at Providence, Rhode Island. It is a courthouse for the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island...

was built in 1908.

Appeals from the District of Rhode Island are taken to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit

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:* District of Maine* District of Massachusetts...

(except for patent

Patent

A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....

claims and claims against the U.S. government under the Tucker Act

Tucker Act

Through the Tucker Act , the United States government has waived its sovereign immunity with respect to certain lawsuits....

, which are appealed to the Federal Circuit

United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

-Vacancies and pending nominations:-List of former judges:-Chief judges:Notwithstanding the foregoing, when the court was initially created, Congress had to resolve which chief judge of the predecessor courts would become the first chief judge...

).

The United States Attorney for the District of Rhode Island represents the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

in civil and criminal litigation in the court. The current United States Attorney is Peter F. Neronha.

Legislative history

The United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island was established on June 23, 1790 by 1 Stat.

United States Statutes at Large

The United States Statutes at Large, commonly referred to as the Statutes at Large and abbreviated Stat., are the official source for the laws and concurrent resolutions passed by the United States Congress...

128. Congress authorized one judgeship for the Court, and assigned the district to the Eastern Circuit. On February 13, 1801, the outgoing lame duck

Lame duck (politics)

A lame duck is an elected official who is approaching the end of his or her tenure, and especially an official whose successor has already been elected.-Description:The status can be due to*having lost a re-election bid...

Federalist-controlled Congress passed the controversial Judiciary Act of 1801 which reassigned the District of Rhode Island to the First Circuit.

The incoming Congress repealed the Judiciary Act of 1801, but in the Judiciary Act of 1802

Judiciary Act of 1802

The United States Judiciary Act of 1802 was a Federal statute, enacted on April 29, 1802, to reorganize the federal court system. It restored some elements of the Judiciary Act of 1801, which had been adopted by the Federalist majority in the previous Congress, but was repealed by the...

, Congress again assigned the District of Rhode Island to the First Circuit.

A second seat on the Court was created on March 18, 1966 by 80 Stat. 75. A third seat was added on July 10, 1984 by 98 Stat. 333.

Current Judges

Current Magistrate Judges

David L. Martin
David L. Martin
-Works:David Martin has produced interior illustrations for Dungeons & Dragons books since 1990, as well as cover art for Domains of Dread . He has also produced artwork for other games including Earthdawn and Shadowrun ....
Lincoln D. Almond
Jacob Hagopian (Senior status)
Robert W. Lovegreen (Senior status)

Former Judges

Judge	Appointed by	Began active service	Ended active service	Ended senior status	End reason
David Leonard Barnes David Leonard Barnes David Leonard Barnes was a United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island judge and a party in the first U.S. Supreme Court decision, West v. Barnes ....	Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...			–	death
Benjamin Bourne Benjamin Bourne Benjamin Bourne was an American jurist and politician from Bristol, Rhode Island. He represented Rhode Island in the U.S. House of Representatives and served as a judge in both the federal district and federal appellate courts.Borurne was born in Bristol and graduated from Harvard College in 1775...	George Washington George Washington George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...			–	reappointment
Francis Joseph Boyle Francis Joseph Boyle Francis Joseph Boyle was a United States federal judge.Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Boyle was in the United States Navy from 1945 to 1946. He received a J.D...	Jimmy Carter Jimmy Carter James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...

}||death
|-
| Arthur Lewis Brown

Arthur Lewis Brown

Arthur Lewis Brown was a United States federal judge.Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Brown received an A.B. from Brown University in 1876 and an LL.B. from Boston University School of Law in 1878...

||Grover Cleveland

Grover Cleveland

Stephen Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States. Cleveland is the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms and therefore is the only individual to be counted twice in the numbering of the presidents...

||||||–||retirement
|-
| Jonathan Russell Bullock

Jonathan Russell Bullock

Jonathan Russell Bullock was a Rhode Island politician and a United States federal judge.Born in Bristol, Rhode Island, Bullock graduated from Brown University in 1834 and read law to enter the bar in 1836. He was in private practice in Alton, Illinois from 1836 to 1843, and served as on the Alton...

||Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...

||||||–||resignation
|-
| George Moulton Carpenter

George Moulton Carpenter

----George Moulton Carpenter, Junior was a newspaper reporter, lawyer, elected Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Providence Rhode Island and appointed as a United States District Judge for the District of Rhode Island.-Early life:...

||Chester A. Arthur

Chester A. Arthur

Chester Alan Arthur was the 21st President of the United States . Becoming President after the assassination of President James A. Garfield, Arthur struggled to overcome suspicions of his beginnings as a politician from the New York City Republican machine, succeeding at that task by embracing...

||||||–||death
|-
| LeBaron B. Colt

LeBaron B. Colt

LeBaron Bradford Colt was a United States Senator from Rhode Island and a circuit court judge.-Biography:He was born in Dedham, Massachusetts to Christopher Colt and Theodora Goujand DeWolf Colt; his younger brother, Samuel P. Colt, was a prominent Rhode Island businessman and politician...

||James A. Garfield||||||–||reappointment
|-
| Edward William Day

Edward William Day

Edward William Day was a United States federal judge.Born in Cranston, Rhode Island, Day received a Ph.B. from Brown University in 1922 and an LL.B. from Harvard Law School in 1925. He was in private practice in Providence, Rhode Island from 1925 to 1930. He was a Clerk, Eighth District Court of...

||Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...

||||||||death
|-
| John Patrick Hartigan

John Patrick Hartigan

John Patrick Hartigan was a longtime federal judge in the United States.Hartigan was born and spent much of his life in Rhode Island. As an undergraduate, he attended Harvard University before graduating from Brown University; he then obtained simultaneous A.M. and LL.B. degrees from Columbia...

||Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...

||||||–||reappointment
|-
| David Howell

David Howell (jurist)

David Howell was an American jurist and statesman from Providence, Rhode Island.Born in Morristown, New Jersey, Howell graduated from Princeton University in 1766, and received an A.M. from Brown University in 1769. He was in private practice in Providence, Rhode Island from 1768 to 1779...

||James Madison

James Madison

James Madison, Jr. was an American statesman and political theorist. He was the fourth President of the United States and is hailed as the “Father of the Constitution” for being the primary author of the United States Constitution and at first an opponent of, and then a key author of the United...

||||||–||death
|-
| John Power Knowles

John Power Knowles

John Power Knowles was a United States federal judge.Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Knowles eceived an A.B. from Brown University in 1836 and an LL.B. from Harvard University in 1838. He was in private practice in Providence, Rhode Island from 1838 to 1855. He was a Member, Rhode Island General...

||Ulysses Grant||||||–||retirement
|-
| Edward L. Leahy

Edward L. Leahy

Edward Lawrence Leahy was a United States Senator and federal judge from Rhode Island. Born in Bristol, Rhode Island, he attended the public schools, was a student at Brown University in 1904 and 1905, graduated from the law school of Georgetown University in 1908, was admitted to the Rhode Island...

||Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...

||||||–||death
|-
| Ira Lloyd Letts

Ira Lloyd Letts

Ira Lloyd Letts was a United States federal judge.Born in Cortland County, New York, Letts received a Ph.B. from Brown University in 1913, an M.A. from Brown University in 1914, and an LL.B. from Columbia Law School in 1917. He was in private practice in Providence, Rhode Island from 1917 to 1925....

||Calvin Coolidge

Calvin Coolidge

John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. was the 30th President of the United States . A Republican lawyer from Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of that state...

||||||–||resignation
|-
| John Christopher Mahoney

John Christopher Mahoney

John Christopher Mahoney was a federal judge in the United States.Mahoney was born in Ireland but spent most of his life in Rhode Island. He attended Brown University and Harvard Law School...

||Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt

||||||–||reappointment
|-
| Henry Marchant

Henry Marchant

Henry Marchant was American lawyer from Newport, Rhode Island and United States federal judge. He was a delegate to the Continental Congress from 1777 to 1779, and was a signer of the Articles of Confederation for Rhode Island.-Life of service:Born in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, Marchant...

||George Washington

George Washington

George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...

||||||–||death
|-
| Raymond James Pettine

Raymond James Pettine

Raymond James Pettine was a United States federal judge.Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Pettine received a LL.B. from Boston University School of Law in 1937 and a LL.M. from Boston University School of Law in 1940...

||Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...

||||||||death
|-
| John Pitman

John Pitman (judge)

John Pitman was a United States federal judge.Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Pitman was educated at Brown University, receiving an A.B. in 1799, at the age of fifteen. He read law to enter the New Hampshire Bar in 1805, and the New York Bar in 1806...

||James Monroe

James Monroe

James Monroe was the fifth President of the United States . Monroe was the last president who was a Founding Father of the United States, and the last president from the Virginia dynasty and the Republican Generation...

||||||–||death
|-
| Bruce M. Selya||Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan

Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....

||||||–||reappointment
|-
| Ernest C. Torres

Ernest C. Torres

Ernest C. Torres is a former United States federal judge.Born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Torres received an A.B. from Dartmouth College in 1963 and a J.D. from Duke University School of Law in 1968. He was in private practice in Providence, Rhode Island from 1968 to 1980...

||Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan

Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....

||||||||retirement
|-
|}

Notable cases

West v. Barnes
West v. Barnes
West v. Barnes, 2 U.S. 401 , was the first United States Supreme Court decision and the earliest case calling for oral argument. Van Staphorst v. Maryland was docketed prior to West v. Barnes but settled before the Court heard the case: West was argued on August 2, 1791 and decided on August 3,...

(1791), the first case appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court
Fricke v. Lynch
Fricke v. Lynch
Fricke v. Lynch, 491 F.Supp. 381 , was a decision in the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island that upheld the right of a gay student to bring a same-sex date to a high school dance. The Court ruled that existing free speech doctrine protected gay and lesbian students'...

(1980), case involving government gender limits on prom dates

External links