The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (in case citations, S.D.N.Y.) is a federal trial court whose geographic jurisdiction encompasses eight counties of

New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. sta ...

. Two of these are in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

(Manhattan) and

Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

; six are in Downstate: Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, Orange, Dutchess, and Sullivan. Appeals from the Southern District of New York are taken to the

United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (in case citations, 2d Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. Its territory comprises the states of Connecticut, New York and Vermont. The court has appellate ju ...

(except for

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

claims and claims against the U.S. government under the Tucker Act, which are appealed to the

Federal Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (in case citations, Fed. Cir. or C.A.F.C.) is a United States court of appeals that has special appellate jurisdiction over certain types of specialized cases in the U.S. federal court ...

). Because it covers

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, the Southern District of New York has long been one of the most active and influential federal trial courts in the United States. It often has jurisdiction over America's largest financial institutions and prosecution of white-collar crime and other federal crimes. Because of its age and influence, it is sometimes colloquially called the "Mother Court" or the "Sovereign District of New York." The district has had several prominent judges on its bench, including

Learned Hand Billings Learned Hand ( ; January 27, 1872 – August 18, 1961) was an American jurist, lawyer, and judicial philosopher. He served as a federal trial judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York from 1909 to 1924 an ...

, Michael Mukasey, and Sonia Sotomayor, and many of the U.S. Attorneys for the district have been prominent American legal and political figures, such as

Elihu Root Elihu Root (; February 15, 1845February 7, 1937) was an American lawyer, Republican politician, and statesman who served as Secretary of State and Secretary of War in the early twentieth century. He also served as United States Senator from ...

Henry L. Stimson Henry Lewis Stimson (September 21, 1867 – October 20, 1950) was an American statesman, lawyer, and Republican Party politician. Over his long career, he emerged as a leading figure in U.S. foreign policy by serving in both Republican and ...

, Robert Morgenthau,

Rudy Giuliani Rudolph William Louis Giuliani (, ; born May 28, 1944) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 107th Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He previously served as the United States Associate Attorney General from 1981 to 19 ...

, James Comey,

Michael J. Garcia Michael John Garcia (born October 8, 1961) is an American lawyer, judge and former Republican government official. Since February 2016, he has served as an Associate Judge of the New York Court of Appeals, that state's highest court. He is a form ...

, and

Preet Bharara Preetinder Singh Bharara (; born October 13, 1968) is an Indian-born American lawyer, author, podcaster and former federal prosecutor who served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2009 to 2017. He is curren ...

Jurisdiction

The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York encompasses the counties of New York, Bronx, Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, Orange, Dutchess, and Sullivan and draws jurors from those counties. The Court also shares jurisdiction over the waters of the counties of Kings, Nassau, Queens, Richmond, and Suffolk with the

United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York The United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (in case citations, E.D.N.Y.) is the federal district court whose territorial jurisdiction spans five counties in New York State: the four Long Island counties of Nassau, ...

. The Court hears cases in Manhattan, White Plains, and Poughkeepsie, New York. The United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York represents the United States in civil and criminal litigation in the Court. the

United States Attorney United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal ...

is Damian Williams. The court sits in the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse and Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse, both in

, and in the

Charles L. Brieant Jr. Federal Building and Courthouse The Hon. Charles L. Brieant Jr. Federal Building and Courthouse is a United States federal office building and courthouse located at 300 Quarropas Street in downtown White Plains, New York, the seat of Westchester County. It is adjacent to the R ...

in White Plains.

History

The United States District Court for the District of New York was one of the original 13 courts established by the

Judiciary Act of 1789 The Judiciary Act of 1789 (ch. 20, ) was a United States federal statute enacted on September 24, 1789, during the first session of the First United States Congress. It established the federal judiciary of the United States. Article III, Sec ...

, 1 Stat. 73, on September 24, 1789. It first sat at the old Merchants Exchange on Broad Street in November 1789, the first federal court to do so.Asbury Dickens, ''A Synoptical Index to the Laws and Treaties of the United States of America'' (1852), p. 386.U.S. District Courts of New York, Legislative history
''

Federal Judicial Center The Federal Judicial Center is the education and research agency of the United States federal courts. It was established by in 1967, at the recommendation of the Judicial Conference of the United States. According to , the main areas of respo ...

''. The Act of April 9, 1814, 3 Stat. 120, divided the District of New York into

Northern Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a r ...

and Southern Districts. The subdivision of the district was reportedly instigated by

Matthias B. Tallmadge Matthias Burnett Tallmadge (March 1, 1774 – October 1, 1819) was a member of the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of New York and the ...

, out of antipathy for fellow district judge

William P. Van Ness William Peter Van Ness (February 13, 1778 – September 6, 1826) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of New York and the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, also ...

. These Districts were later further subdivided with the creation of the Eastern District on February 25, 1865 by 13 Stat. 438, and the Western District on May 12, 1900, by 31 Stat. 175. Public Law 95-408 (enacted October 2, 1978) transferred Columbia, Greene, and Ulster Counties from the Southern to the Northern District. For the first hundred years of its existence, the case load of the District was dominated first by

admiralty Admiralty most often refers to: *Admiralty, Hong Kong *Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964 *The rank of admiral *Admiralty law Admiralty can also refer to: Buildings * Admiralty, Traf ...

cases, and then by a mix of admiralty and

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debto ...

cases. The primary responsibility for hearing bankruptcy cases has since been transferred to the

United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York is the United States bankruptcy court within the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The Southern District of New York is a major venue for b ...

, with the District Court only reviewing cases already decided by a bankruptcy judge. Since its creation, the Southern District of New York has had over 150 judges, more than any other District. Twenty-one judges from the Southern District of New York have been elevated to the

— Samuel Blatchford,

Charles Merrill Hough Charles Merrill Hough (May 18, 1858 – April 22, 1927) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and previously was a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the S ...

Julius Marshuetz Mayer Julius Marshuetz Mayer (September 5, 1865 – November 20, 1925) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and previously was a United States District Judge of the United States District Court f ...

Augustus Noble Hand Augustus Noble Hand (July 26, 1869 – October 28, 1954) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and later was a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals ...

Martin Thomas Manton Martin Thomas Manton (August 2, 1880 – November 17, 1946) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and previously was a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for th ...

, Robert P. Patterson,

Harold Medina Harold Raymond Medina (February 16, 1888 – March 14, 1990) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and previously was a United States district judge of the United States District Court fo ...

Irving Kaufman Irving Robert Kaufman (June 24, 1910 – February 1, 1992) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern Dis ...

, Wilfred Feinberg,

Walter R. Mansfield Walter Roe Mansfield (July 1, 1911 – January 8, 1987) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and previously was a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the So ...

, Murray Gurfein,

Lawrence W. Pierce Lawrence Warren Pierce (December 31, 1924 – February 5, 2020) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and a former United States district judge of the United States District Court for the S ...

, Pierre N. Leval,

John M. Walker Jr. John Mercer Walker Jr. (born December 26, 1940) is a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He served as chief judge from September 30, 2000, to September 30, 2006, when he assumed senior ...

, Sonia Sotomayor, Denny Chin,

Barrington Daniels Parker Jr. Barrington Daniels Parker Jr. (born August 21, 1944) is a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Background Parker's father, Barrington Daniels Parker Sr., was a judge on the United ...

Gerard E. Lynch Gerard Edmund Lynch (born September 4, 1951) is an American lawyer who serves as a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He was confirmed to that seat on September 17, 2009, after previo ...

Richard J. Sullivan Richard Joseph Sullivan (born April 10, 1964) is an American lawyer who serves as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He was formerly a United States district judge of the United States D ...

, and

Alison Nathan Alison Julie Nathan (born June 18, 1972) is an American lawyer who has served as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit since 2022. She served as a United States district judge of the United S ...

. Blatchford and Sotomayor, after being elevated from the Southern District of New York to serve as Circuit Judges for the Second Circuit, were later elevated to the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. Federal tribunals in the United States, federal court cases, and over Stat ...

. The longest serving judge,

David Norton Edelstein David Norton Edelstein (February 16, 1910 – August 19, 2000) was a United States federal judge, United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York from 1951 to 2000 and its Chief Judge from 197 ...

, served as an active judge for 43 years to the day, and in

senior status Senior status is a form of semi- retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of service as a federal judge must be at leas ...

for an additional six years. Judges of the court have gone on to other high governmental positions. Robert P. Patterson served as Under Secretary of War under President

Franklin Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

and was Secretary of War under President Harry S. Truman. Louis Freeh served as

Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation The Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a United States' federal law enforcement agency, and is responsible for its day-to-day operations. The FBI Director is appointed for a single ...

from September 1993 to June 2001. Michael Mukasey served as the 81st

United States Attorney General The United States attorney general (AG) is the head of the United States Department of Justice, and is the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government of the United States. The attorney general serves as the principal advisor to the p ...

under President George W. Bush.

Notable cases

* The injury and loss of life claims from the sinking of the ''Titanic'', the torpedo attack on the ''Lusitania'' and the fire aboard the ''

General Slocum The PS ''General Slocum''"PS" stands for "Paddle Steamer" was a sidewheel passenger steamboat built in Brooklyn, New York, in 1891. During her service history, she was involved in a number of mishaps, including multiple groundings and collision ...

'' were heard in the S.D.N.Y. * The espionage trial of

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Julius Rosenberg (May 12, 1918 – June 19, 1953) and Ethel Rosenberg (; September 28, 1915 – June 19, 1953) were American citizens who were convicted of spying on behalf of the Soviet Union. The couple were convicted of providing top-secret i ...

and the perjury trial of

Alger Hiss Alger Hiss (November 11, 1904 – November 15, 1996) was an American government official accused in 1948 of having spied for the Soviet Union in the 1930s. Statutes of limitations had expired for espionage, but he was convicted of perjury in co ...

were heard in the S.D.N.Y. * Judge

John M. Woolsey John Munro Woolsey (January 3, 1877 – May 4, 1945) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. He was known "for his brilliant and poignantly phrased decisions", including seve ...

of the S.D.N.Y. rejected government efforts to censor on obscenity grounds the distribution of

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the Modernism, modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important ...

's ''Ulysses''. * Judge Murray Gurfein of the Court rejected government efforts to enjoin ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' from publishing the '' Pentagon Papers''. *

Defamation Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

suits were heard in the S.D.N.Y. against CBS and ''Time'' magazine by General William Westmoreland and

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

i General

Ariel Sharon Ariel Sharon (; ; ; also known by his diminutive Arik, , born Ariel Scheinermann, ; 26 February 1928 – 11 January 2014) was an Israeli general and politician who served as the 11th Prime Minister of Israel from March 2001 until April 2006. S ...

. * Two former Attorneys General of the United States were indicted and tried in the S.D.N.Y. for crimes while in office –

Harry Daugherty Harry Micajah Daugherty (; January 26, 1860 – October 12, 1941) was an American politician. A key Ohio Republican political insider, he is best remembered for his service as Attorney General of the United States under Presidents Warren G. Hardi ...

of the

Teapot Dome The Teapot Dome scandal was a bribery scandal involving the administration of United States President Warren G. Harding from 1921 to 1923. Secretary of the Interior Albert Bacon Fall had leased Navy petroleum reserves at Teapot Dome in Wyo ...

era and John Mitchell of the

Watergate The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's continu ...

era. Juries were unable to reach verdicts in the two trials against Daugherty; John Mitchell was acquitted. * Financial frauds have been prosecuted in the S.D.N.Y., among them the cases against

Bernard Madoff Bernard Lawrence Madoff ( ; April 29, 1938April 14, 2021) was an American fraudster and financier who was the admitted mastermind of the largest Ponzi scheme in history, worth about $64.8 billion. He was at one time chairman of the NASDAQ ...

Ivan Boesky Ivan Frederick Boesky (born March 6, 1937) is a former American stock trader who became infamous for his prominent role in an insider trading scandal that occurred in the United States during the mid-1980s. He was charged and pled guilty to insi ...

Michael Milken Michael Robert Milken (born July 4, 1946) is an American financier. He is known for his role in the development of the market for high-yield bonds ("junk bonds"), and his conviction and sentence following a guilty plea on felony charges for vio ...

, and Sam Bankman-Fried. * Bombings: the trials of those accused of the

1998 United States embassy bombings The 1998 United States embassy bombings were attacks that occurred on August 7, 1998. More than 200 people were killed in nearly simultaneous truck bomb explosions in two East African cities, one at the United States Embassy in Dar es Salaam ...

in East Africa; those alleged to have been responsible for the

1993 World Trade Center bombing The 1993 World Trade Center bombing was a terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City, U.S., carried out on February 26, 1993, when a van bomb detonated below the North Tower of the complex. The urea nitrate–hydrogen gas en ...

; and Omar Abdel Rahman (known in the press as "The Blind Sheikh"), occurred in the District. More recently, the prosecution arising out of the 2010 Times Square car bombing attempt were each heard in the S.D.N.Y. * '' Bridgeman v. Corel'' (1999) established that exact reproductions of public domain paintings were not subject to

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educatio ...

protection. * '' Viacom Inc. v. YouTube Inc.'', a $1 billion lawsuit against Google and YouTube on the grounds of alleged

copyright infringement Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, ...

. The DMCA safe harbor law became the main argument in the case. * Prosecution of

Abduwali Muse Abduwali Abdulkadir Muse ( so, Cabdiweli Cabdiqaadir Muuse; ; ; born 1990) is a convicted Somali pirate. He is the sole survivor of four pirates who hijacked the in April 2009 and then held Captain Richard Phillips for ransom. On 16 February 2 ...

, the so-called "Somali Pirate", was heard in the Court. * The criminal cases against Bess Myerson, Leona Helmsley and

Martha Stewart Martha Helen Stewart (, ; born August 3, 1941) is an American retail businesswoman, writer, and television personality. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing pu ...

were heard in the S.D.N.Y., as was the U.S. case against Imelda Marcos. * The Deflategate controversy concerning the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...

's Tom Brady was heard in the S.D.N.Y. * ''Hosseinzadeh v. Klein'', concerning the practice of fair use in online video content, was heard in the S.D.N.Y. * On December 12, 2018, Judge

William H. Pauley III William Henry Pauley III (August 14, 1952 – July 6, 2021) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. He was noted for issuing the opinion in '' ACLU v. Clapper'' in 2013 concer ...

sentenced Michael Cohen – who had served as personal legal counsel to U.S. president

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

for more than a decade – to "three years in prison and millions in forfeitures, restitution and fines",Hamilton, Colby
"Cohen's 'Blind Loyalty' Leads to 3-Year Prison Term"
''New York Law Journal'' via Law.com, December 12, 2018. Retrieved December 12, 2018. after pleading guilty to charges including campaign finance violations, tax evasion and committing perjury while under oath before Congress.

Current judges

Vacancies and pending nominations

Former judges

Chief judges

Succession of seats

References

External links

Official website for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

Official website for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York

Official website for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York

Official website of the Southern District Court Reporters
{{DEFAULTSORT:United States District Court for the Southern District of New York New York (state) law Manhattan White Plains, New York 1814 establishments in New York (state) New York, South Courthouses in New York (state) Courthouses in New York City Courts and tribunals established in 1814