Court of Appeals
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
Hears appeals from the district courts within its circuit. Cases are normally decided by panels of three judges, and its rulings bind every district court in that circuit. For nearly all litigants this is the last court that will hear the case.
The bench
Who sits on this court?
Judges in active service, when they were confirmed, and who nominated each.
| Judge | Since | Nominated by | Seat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Harry Thomas Edwards Senior | 1980 | Jimmy Carter | CADC0802 |
| Douglas Howard Ginsburg Senior | 1986 | Ronald Reagan | CADC0207 |
| David Bryan Sentelle Senior | 1987 | Ronald Reagan | CADC0407 |
| Karen LeCraft Henderson | 1990 | George H.W. Bush | CADC0904 |
| Arthur Raymond Randolph Senior | 1990 | George H.W. Bush | CADC1003 |
| Judith Ann Wilson Rogers Senior | 1994 | William J. Clinton | CADC0506 |
| Srikanth Srinivasan | 2013 | Barack Obama | CADC1004 |
| Patricia Ann Millett | 2013 | Barack Obama | CADC0608 |
| Cornelia Thayer Livingston Pillard | 2013 | Barack Obama | CADC0208 |
| Robert Leon Wilkins | 2014 | Barack Obama | CADC0408 |
| Gregory George Katsas | 2017 | Donald J. Trump | CADC0706 |
| Neomi Jehangir Rao | 2019 | Donald J. Trump | CADC1303 |
| Justin Reed Walker | 2020 | Donald J. Trump | CADC1103 |
| Julianna Michelle Childs | 2022 | Joseph R. Biden | CADC0309 |
| Florence Y. Pan | 2022 | Joseph R. Biden | CADC1204 |
| Bradley Nelson Garcia | 2023 | Joseph R. Biden | CADC0507 |
Source · Federal Judicial Center, Biographical Directory of Article III Federal Judges, 1789–present (public domain)
What seats does this court have?
Each seat on this court, who holds it, and how many judges have held it before.
- Judges seated now
- 16
- Seat numbers on record
- 72
| Seat | Held by | Since | Holders to date |
|---|---|---|---|
| CADC0207 | Douglas Howard Ginsburg | 1986 | 1 |
| CADC0208 | Cornelia Thayer Livingston Pillard | 2013 | 1 |
| CADC0309 | Julianna Michelle Childs | 2022 | 1 |
| CADC0407 | David Bryan Sentelle | 1987 | 1 |
| CADC0408 | Robert Leon Wilkins | 2014 | 1 |
| CADC0506 | Judith Ann Wilson Rogers | 1994 | 1 |
| CADC0507 | Bradley Nelson Garcia | 2023 | 1 |
| CADC0608 | Patricia Ann Millett | 2013 | 1 |
| CADC0706 | Gregory George Katsas | 2017 | 1 |
| CADC0802 | Harry Thomas Edwards | 1980 | 1 |
| CADC0904 | Karen LeCraft Henderson | 1990 | 1 |
| CADC1003 | Arthur Raymond Randolph | 1990 | 1 |
| CADC1004 | Srikanth Srinivasan | 2013 | 1 |
| CADC1103 | Justin Reed Walker | 2020 | 1 |
| CADC1204 | Florence Y. Pan | 2022 | 1 |
| CADC1303 | Neomi Jehangir Rao | 2019 | 1 |
56 seat numbers with no sitting judge
These are seat numbers in the historical record with nobody currently in them. That usually means the seat was abolished or renumbered, not that it is open today — Congress has changed the size of federal courts many times. Do not read this as a vacancy list.
| Seat | Last held by | Until | Holders |
|---|---|---|---|
| CADC0101 | Richard Henry Alvey | 1905 | 1 |
| CADC0102 | Seth Shepard | 1917 | 1 |
| CADC0103 | Constantine Joseph Smyth | 1924 | 1 |
| CADC0104 | George Ewing Martin | 1948 | 1 |
| CADC0105 | Duncan Lawrence Groner | 1957 | 1 |
| CADC0106 | Harold Montelle Stephens | 1948 | 1 |
| CADC0201 | Martin Ferdinand Morris | 1905 | 1 |
| CADC0202 | Louis Emory McComas | 1907 | 1 |
| CADC0203 | Josiah Alexander Van Orsdel | 1937 | 1 |
| CADC0204 | Justin Miller | 1945 | 1 |
| CADC0205 | Elijah Barrett Prettyman | 1971 | 1 |
| CADC0206 | James Skelly Wright | 1988 | 1 |
| CADC0301 | Seth Shepard | 1905 | 1 |
| CADC0302 | Charles Holland Duell | 1906 | 1 |
| CADC0303 | Charles Henry Robb | 1939 | 1 |
| CADC0304 | Frederick Moore Vinson | 1943 | 1 |
| CADC0305 | Wilbur Kingsbury Miller | 1976 | 1 |
| CADC0306 | Harold Leventhal | 1979 | 1 |
| CADC0307 | Ruth Bader Ginsburg | 1993 | 1 |
| CADC0308 | David S. Tatel | 2024 | 1 |
| CADC0401 | William Hitz | 1935 | 1 |
| CADC0402 | Harold Montelle Stephens | 1948 | 1 |
| CADC0403 | James McPherson Proctor | 1953 | 1 |
| CADC0404 | John Anthony Danaher | 1990 | 1 |
| CADC0405 | Roger Robb | 1985 | 1 |
| CADC0406 | Antonin Scalia | 1986 | 1 |
| CADC0501 | Duncan Lawrence Groner | 1938 | 1 |
| CADC0502 | Henry White Edgerton | 1970 | 1 |
| CADC0503 | Carl E. McGowan | 1987 | 1 |
| CADC0504 | Robert Heron Bork | 1988 | 1 |
| CADC0505 | Clarence Thomas | 1991 | 1 |
| CADC0601 | Wiley Blount Rutledge | 1943 | 1 |
| CADC0602 | Thurman Wesley Arnold | 1945 | 1 |
| CADC0603 | Bennett Champ Clark | 1954 | 1 |
| CADC0604 | Walter Maximillian Bastian | 1975 | 1 |
| CADC0605 | Edward Allen Tamm | 1985 | 1 |
| CADC0606 | James Lane Buckley | 2023 | 1 |
| CADC0607 | John Glover Roberts Jr. | 2005 | 1 |
| CADC0701 | Harold Montelle Stephens | 1955 | 1 |
| CADC0702 | Warren Earl Burger | 1969 | 1 |
| CADC0703 | Malcolm Richard Wilkey | 1985 | 1 |
| CADC0704 | Stephen Fain Williams | 2020 | 1 |
| CADC0705 | Janice Rogers Brown | 2017 | 1 |
| CADC0801 | David L. Bazelon | 1993 | 1 |
| CADC0901 | Charles Fahy | 1979 | 1 |
| CADC0902 | George Edward MacKinnon | 1995 | 1 |
| CADC0903 | Kenneth Winston Starr | 1989 | 1 |
| CADC1001 | George Thomas Washington | 1971 | 1 |
| CADC1002 | Spottswood William Robinson III | 1998 | 1 |
| CADC1101 | Patricia McGowan Wald | 1999 | 1 |
| CADC1102 | Thomas Beall Griffith | 2020 | 1 |
| CADC1201 | Abner Joseph Mikva | 1994 | 1 |
| CADC1202 | Merrick B. Garland | 2021 | 1 |
| CADC1203 | Ketanji Brown Jackson | 2022 | 1 |
| CADC1301 | Laurence Hirsch Silberman | 2022 | 1 |
| CADC1302 | Brett M. Kavanaugh | 2018 | 1 |
This site does not publish a vacancy count. Seat identifiers are not stable across court renamings and reorganisations, so a seat that was vacated and refilled can appear empty when it is not. The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts publishes the authoritative list of current judicial vacancies: uscourts.gov.
Seats are created by Congress and filled by the President with the Senate's consent. For current vacancies, use the Administrative Office's published list rather than inferring them from this table.
Source · Federal Judicial Center, Biographical Directory of Article III Federal Judges, 1789–present (public domain)
How this bench was built
Who appointed them?
The tally of presidents who placed the sitting judges on this court.
- Democratic
- 9
- Republican
- 7
| President | Judges |
|---|---|
| Barack Obama | 4 |
| Joseph R. Biden | 3 |
| Donald J. Trump | 3 |
| Ronald Reagan | 2 |
| George H.W. Bush | 2 |
| Jimmy Carter | 1 |
| William J. Clinton | 1 |
The party of the president who appointed a judge is a matter of record. How that judge will rule is not, and this site draws no inference from one to the other.
Source · Federal Judicial Center, Biographical Directory of Article III Federal Judges, 1789–present (public domain)