United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois


The United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois serves the residents of forty-six counties, which are divided into four divisions. The counties are: Adams, Brown, Bureau, Cass, Champaign, Christian, Coles, DeWitt, Douglas, Edgar, Ford, Fulton, Greene, Hancock, Henderson, Henry, Iroquois, Kankakee, Knox, Livingston, Logan, McDonough, McLean, Macoupin, Macon, Marshall, Mason, Menard, Mercer, Montgomery, Morgan, Moultrie, Peoria, Piatt, Pike, Putnam, Rock Island, Sangamon, Schuyler, Scott, Shelby, Stark, Tazewell, Vermilion, Warren, and Woodford counties.
The courthouses for the Central District's four divisions are in Peoria, Rock Island, Springfield, and Urbana. In 2018, all court operations for the Rock Island District were moved to the federal courthouse in Davenport, Iowa, due to uninhabitable conditions at the Rock Island courthouse.
Appeals are taken to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
As of, the current United States Attorney is John C. Milhiser.

History

The United States District Court for the District of Illinois was established by a statute passed by the United States Congress on March 3, 1819, 3 Stat. 502. The act established a single office for a judge to preside over the court. Initially, the court was not within any existing judicial circuit, and appeals from the court were taken directly to the United States Supreme Court. In 1837, Congress created the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, placing it in Chicago, Illinois and giving it jurisdiction over the District of Illinois,.
On February 13, 1855, by, the District of Illinois was subdivided into Northern and the Southern Districts. An Eastern District was created on March 3, 1905 by, by splitting counties out of the Northern and Southern Districts. It was later eliminated in a reorganization on October 2, 1978 which replaced it with the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois District,. The newly created Central District was formed primarily from parts of the Southern District, and returned some counties to the Northern District. Some judges from both the Eastern and Southern Districts were transferred to the Central District by operation of law.

Current judges


Former Judges

Chief judges

Succession of seats