The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (in

case citation Case citation is a system used by legal professionals to identify past court case decisions, either in series of books called reporters or law reports, or in a neutral style that identifies a decision regardless of where it is reported. Case c ...

s, 4th Cir.) is a federal court located in

Richmond, Virginia Richmond ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. Incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city (United States), independent city since 1871. ...

, with

appellate jurisdiction An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear a case upon appeal from a trial court or other lower tribunal. Appellat ...

over the district courts in the following

districts A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions ...

: * District of Maryland * Eastern District of North Carolina * Middle District of North Carolina * Western District of North Carolina * District of South Carolina * Eastern District of Virginia * Western District of Virginia * Northern District of West Virginia * Southern District of West Virginia The court is based at the Lewis F. Powell Jr. United States Courthouse in

. With 15 authorized judgeships, it is mid-sized among the 13 United States Courts of Appeals. __TOC__ Richmond Federal Appeals Court and skyline VA2

Current composition of the court

List of former judges

Chief judges

Succession of seats

Practice in the 4th Circuit

From 2000 to 2008, the Court had the highest rate of

non-publication Non-publication of legal opinions is the practice of a court issuing unpublished opinions. An unpublished opinion is a decision of a court that is not available for citation as precedent because the court deems the case to have insufficient preced ...

(92%) on the Federal Circuit. The Chief Justice is always assigned to the Fourth Circuit as the circuit justice, due to Richmond's close proximity to Washington, D.C. The Fourth Circuit is considered an extremely collegial court. By tradition, the judges of the Fourth Circuit come down from the bench following each

oral argument Oral arguments are spoken presentations to a judge or appellate court by a lawyer (or parties when representing themselves) of the legal reasons why they should prevail. Oral argument at the appellate level accompanies written briefs, which also ...

to greet the lawyers.

Case law

*'' United States v. Snider'', 502 F.2d 645 (1972)

Notes

References

External links

United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit

Recent opinions from Findlaw
{{DEFAULTSORT:United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Organizations based in Richmond, Virginia Baltimore Charleston, West Virginia Alexandria, Virginia Government of Raleigh, North Carolina Government of Richmond, Virginia 1891 establishments in the United States Courts and tribunals established in 1891