
From the U.S. Code Online via GPO Access
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[Laws in effect as of January 2, 2001]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
  January 2, 2001 and January 28, 2002]
[CITE: 28USC88]

 
               TITLE 28--JUDICIARY AND JUDICIAL PROCEDURE
 
                     PART I--ORGANIZATION OF COURTS
 
                       CHAPTER 5--DISTRICT COURTS
 
Sec. 88. District of Columbia

    The District of Columbia constitutes one judicial district.

                       Court shall be held at Washington.

(June 25, 1948, ch. 646, 62 Stat. 875.)


                      Historical and Revision Notes

    This section expressly makes the District of Columbia a judicial 
district of the United States.
    Section 41 of this title also makes the District of Columbia a 
judicial circuit of the United States.
    Section 11-305 of the District of Columbia Code, 1940 ed., provides 
that the District Court of the United States for the District of 
Columbia shall possess the same powers and exercise the same 
jurisdiction as the district courts of the United States, and shall be 
deemed a court of the United States.
    It is consonant with the ruling of the Supreme Court in O'Donoghue 
v. United States, 1933, 53 S.Ct. 740, 289 U.S. 516, 77 L.Ed. 1356, that 
the (then called) Supreme Court and Court of Appeals of the District of 
Columbia are constitutional courts of the United States, ordained and 
established under article III of the Constitution, Congress enacted that 
the Court of Appeals ``shall hereafter be known as the United States 
Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia'' (Act of June 7, 1934, 48 
Stat. 926); and also changed the name of the Supreme Court of the 
District of Columbia to ``district court of the United States for the 
District of Columbia'' (Act of June 25, 1936, 49 Stat. 1921). In Federal 
Trade Commission v. Klesner, 1927, 47 S.Ct. 557, 274 U.S. 145, 71 L.Ed. 
972, the Supreme Court ruled: ``* * * The parallelism between the 
Supreme Court of the District [of Columbia] and the Court of Appeals of 
the District [of Columbia], on the one hand, and the district courts of 
the United States and the circuit courts of appeals, on the other, in 
the consideration and disposition of cases involving what among the 
States would be regarded as within Federal jurisdiction, is complete.'' 
See also to the same effect Clairborne-Annapolis Ferry Company v. United 
States, 1932, 52 S.Ct. 440, 285 U.S. 382, 76 L.Ed. 808.
