At the present time there are three different grades of regular inferior United States Courts, viz.: District Courts, Circuit Courts, and Circuit Courts of Appeal. The two former were first established by the judiciary act of 1789 and the third by the act of 1891. There are seventy-seven judicial districts in the United States, each with a District Court and a district judge.3 These seventy-seven districts are grouped into nine circuits, in each of which there is a Circuit Court and a Circuit Court of Appeals.4 Each judge of the Supreme Court is assigned to one of these circuits,5 and is required to attend a term of the Circuit Court in each district of the circuit at least once every two years.6 There are at least two circuit judges in each circuit.7 By various special acts the number of judges in the first, third, fifth, sixth and ninth circuits have been increased to three, and in the second, seventh and eighth circuits to four.8 Circuit Courts can be held by the circuit justice, or by the circuit judge of the circuit, or by the district judge of the district sitting alone, or by any two of the said judges sitting together.9 The Chief Justice and the associate justices of the Supreme Court assigned to each circuit, and the circuit judges within each circuit, and the several district judges within each circuit, shall be competent to sit as judges of the Circuit Court of Appeals in their respective circuits. The full court consists of three of the above named judges, the district judges sitting in case of absence of judges of higher rank. In case a judge of the Supreme Court is in attendance such judge acts as presiding judge, otherwise this position is filled by the Circuit Court judges in order of the seniority of their respective commissions.10

3 The states of Alabama, Illinois,

New York, Tennessee and Texas each contain three districts; those of Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania. South Carolina, Virginia, ana Wisconsin, two each; while the remaining twenty-five states each constitute a single district.

4 The different states and territories are assigned to the different circuits as follows: First - Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine; Second - Vermont, Connecticut and New York; Third - Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware; Fourth - Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina; Fifth - Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas; Sixth - Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee; Seventh - Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin; Eighth - Colorado, Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico and Oklahoma; Ninth - California, Oregon, Nevada, Idaho, Washington, Montana, Alaska and Arizona. Rev. State., 604. 5 Rev. Stats., 606.

6 Rev. Stats., 610.

7 Rev. Stats., 607, and act of March 3, 1891, cl. 571. 8 See 24 U. S. Stats., 492; 28 U.

S. Stats., 643; 28 U. S. Stats., 115; 28 U. S. Stats., 665, and other acts. 9 Rev. Stats., 609; Ex parte Kaine, 10 N. Y. (Legal Obs.), 257; Fed. Cas. No. 7598; Pollard vs. Dwight, 4 Cranch, 421; In re Circuit Court, 1 Dill, 1; Fed. Cases, No. 2728. 10 26 U. S. Stats., Sec. 3, Clauses 1 and 2.