United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois

	Central District of Illinois
	Seventh Circuit
	;
	Active judges
	Darrow • Shadid • Myerscough
	Senior Judges
	Baker • McDade • Mills • Mihm
	Magistrate Judges
	Bernthal • Cudmore • Evans • Gorman
	Former Judges

	Central District of Illinois
	Seventh Circuit
	;
	Active judges
	Darrow • Shadid • Myerscough
	Senior Judges
	Baker • McDade • Mills • Mihm
	Magistrate Judges
	Bernthal • Cudmore • Evans • Gorman
	Former Judges

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Court
Judges

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Key:
(Numbers indicate % of seats vacant.)
0%	0%-10%
10%-25%	25%-40%
More than 40%

Contents

1 Court
1.1 Vacancy warning level
1.2 Jurisdiction
1.2.1 Cases heard
1.2.2 Case load
1.3 Clerk's office
1.4 History
1.4.1 Court history
1.4.2 Judicial posts
1.4.3 Notable decisions
1.4.4 Federal courthouse
1.5 Major news
1.6 See also
1.7 External links
1.8 References
2 Judges

The U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois is the United States district court for central Illinois. It serves the residents of forty-six counties from its four courthouses. The counties are:

Counties served by the court

Adams, Brown, Bureau, Cass, Champaign, Christian, Coles, DeWitt, Douglas, Edgar, Ford, Fulton, Greene, Hancock, Henderson, Henry, Iroquois, Kankakee, Knox, Livingston, Logan, McDonough, McLean, Macoupin, Macon, Marshall, Mason, Menard, Mercer, Montgomery, Morgan, Moultrie, Peoria, Piatt, Pike, Putnam, Rock Island, Sangamon, Schuyler, Scott, Shelby, Stark, Tazewell, Vermilion, Warren, Woodford

When decisions of the court are appealed, they are appealed to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals based in Downtown Chicago at the Everett M. Dirksen Federal Courthouse and Building.

Location of courthouses

The courthouses are in Peoria, Rock Island, Springfield, and Urbana.

Vacancy warning level

The United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois's vacancy warning level is currently set at green. The court currently has zero vacancies out of their four posts. There is one pending appointment for the district.

Jurisdiction

The Counties of the Central District of Illinois (click for larger map)

The geographic jurisdiction of the Central District of Illinois consists of all the following counties in the central part of the state of Illinois.

When decisions of the court are appealed, they are appealed to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals based in Downtown Chicago at the Everett M. Dirksen Federal Courthouse and Building.

Cases heard

The Central District of Illinois has original jurisdiction over cases filed within its jurisdiction. These cases can include civil and criminal matters that fall under federal law.

Case load

Federal Court Case Load Statistics^*

Year	Starting case load:	Cases filed:	Total cases:	Cases terminated:	Remaining cases:	Median time(Criminal)^**:	Median time(Civil)^**:	3 Year Civil cases^#:	Vacant posts:^##	Trials/Post
2010	1531	1608	3139	1688	1451	9.6	10.8	42(3.8%)	14.9	26
2009	1326	1669	2995	1467	1528	9.3	9.9	38(3.2%)	.0	29
2008	1284	1430	2714	1395	1319	9.1	9.3	42(4.0%)	.0	28
2007	1216	1499	2715	1441	1274	8.5	9.1	32(3.3%)	.0	27
2006	1279	1429	2708	1497	1211	8.8	8.7	29(3.1%)	.0	33

^*All statistics are taken from the Official Federal Courts' Website and reflect the calendar year through September. ^**Time in months from filing to completion.
^#This statistic includes cases which have been appealed in higher courts. ^##This is the total number of months that any all judicial posts had spent vacant that year.

Clerk's office

The Central District of Illinois has three separate courthouses. The Clerk's office is open Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m, excluding Federal holidays. Please consult the chart below for more information:

Branch	Address	Phone number
Peoria Division	309 U.S. Courthouse 100 N.E. Monroe Street Peoria IL 61602	Telephone: 309-671-7117 Fax: 309-671-7120
Rock Island Division	40 U.S. Courthouse 211 19th Street Rock Island IL 61201	Telephone: 309-793-5778 Fax: 309-793-5878
Springfield Division	151 U.S. Courthouse 600 E. Monroe Street Springfield IL 62701	Telephone: 217-492-4020 Fax: 217-492-4028
Urbana Division	218 U.S. Courthouse 201 S. Vine Street Urbana IL 61802	Telephone: 217-373-5830 Fax: 217-373-5834

^[1]

History

Court history

Illinois was established as one judicial district by Congress on March 3, 1819 with one post to cover the entire state. The district court was not yet assigned to a judicial circuit and was therefore granted the same jurisdiction as the United States circuit courts, excluding appeals and writs of error, which are the jurisdiction of the United States Supreme Court.

Congress repealed the circuit court jurisdiction of the U.S. District Court for the District of Illinois on March 3, 1837, and established a United States circuit court within the district and assigned it over to the Seventh Circuit.

Illinois divided into two judicial districts on February 13, 1855. The districts were known as the Northern District of Illinois and the Southern District of Illinois. One judgeship was assigned to each district and the District of Illinois was assigned over to the Northern District of Illinois.

Congress reorganized the circuits on July 15, 1862 and assigned Illinois to the Eighth Circuit and then to the Seventh Circuit on July 23, 1866.

The Eastern District of Illinois was established on March 3, 1905. One judgeship was authorized for the district court, as well as an additional judgeship to the Northern District of Illinois. Illinois was again reorganized into the Northern District of Illinois, the Central District of Illinois, and the Southern District of Illinois on October 2, 1978. Thirteen judgeships were assigned for the Northern District of Illinois, two for the Central District of Illinois, and two for the Southern District of Illinois. Over time 2 additional judicial posts were added for a total of 4 current posts.^[2]

Judicial posts

The following table highlights the development of judicial posts for the Central District of Illinois:

Year	Statute	Total Seats
March 3, 1819	3 Stat. 502	1
October 2, 1978	92 Stat. 883	2
March 30, 1979	93 Stat. 6	3
November 2, 2002	116 Stat. 1758	4

^[2]

Notable cases

This page is missing notable case information.

For a searchable list of opinions, please see Justia.com-Dockets and Filings-Central District of Illinois.

Federal courthouse

Four separate courthouses serve the Central District of Illinois.

Major news

For new stories and other related material see Illinois judicial news.

External links

References

↑ Court Clerk Information(Select the appropriate division for info and map)
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 FJC History of the Central District of Illinois

Share this Court:

Key:
(Numbers indicate % of seats vacant.)
0%	0%-10%
10%-25%	25%-40%
More than 40%

Contents

1 Court
2 Judges
2.1 Active Judges
2.1.1 Article III judges
2.1.2 Pending appointments
2.1.3 Senior judges
2.2 Past judges
2.2.1 Former Chief judges
2.2.2 Former judges

Active judges

Article III judges

See: Article III federal judge
The United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois has 4 posts and 0 vacancies. The current Chief Judge is Michael McCuskey. This is a list of the current judges on the court:

Judge	Born	Home	Appointed by	Active	Chief	Preceeded	Bachelors	Law
Judge Sue Myerscough	1951	Springfield, IL	Obama	3/14/2011 - Present		Jeanne Scott	Southern Illinois U., B.A., 1973	Southern Illinois U. School of Law, J.D., 1980
Judge Michael McCuskey	1948	Peoria, IL	Clinton	4/3/1998 - Present	2004 - 4/4/2012	Harold Baker	Illinois State U., B.S., 1970	Saint Louis U. School of Law, J.D., 1975
Chief Judge James E. Shadid	1957	Peoria, IL	Obama	3/10/2011 - Present	3/12/2012 - Present	Michael Mihm	Bradley U., B.S., 1979	John Marshall Law School, J.D., 1983
Judge Sara Lynn Darrow	1970	Pontiac, MI	Obama	8/3/2011 - Present		Joe McDade	Marquette U., B.A., 1992	Saint Louis U. School of Law, J.D., 1997

Pending appointments

The United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois has 1 appointee pending and 0 vacancies. This is a list of the current pending appointees to the court:

Judge	Confirmation	Bachelors	Law
Colin Stirling Bruce		U. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, B.A., 1986	U. of Illinois Law, J.D., 1989

Senior judges

See: Federal judges on senior status
The United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois has 4 judges on senior status currently. This is a list of the current senior judges on the court:

Judge	Appointed by	Active	Chief	Senior	Bachelors	Law
Senior Judge Michael Mihm	Reagan	8/6/1982 - 10/1/2009	1991 - 1998	10/1/2009 - Present	Loras College, B.A., 1964	Saint Louis U. School of Law, J.D., 1967
Senior Judge Richard Mills	Reagan	7/22/1985 - 10/7/1997		10/7/1997 - Present	Illinois College, B.A., 1951	Mercer U. School of Law, J.D., 1957
Senior Judge Joe McDade	H.W. Bush	11/25/1991 - 2/28/2010	1998 - 2004	2/28/2010 - Present	Bradley U., B.S., 1959	U. of Michigan Law School, J.D., 1963
Senior Judge Harold Baker	Carter	3/31/1979 - 10/4/1994	1984 - 1991	10/4/1994 - Present	U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, A.B., 1951	U. of Illinois College of Law, J.D., 1956

Magistrate judges

Judge	Active	Bachelors	Law
Magistrate Judge David Bernthal	1995 - Present	U. of Illinois, B.A., 1972	U. of Illinois Law, J.D., 1976
Magistrate Judge John Gorman	02/18/2000 - Present
Magistrate Judge Byron Cudmore

Past judges

Former Chief judges

Judge	Term
James Ackerman	1982 - 1984
Robert Morgan	1979 - 1982
Harold Baker	1984 - 1991
Joe McDade	1998 - 2004
Michael Mihm	1991 - 1998

In order to qualify for the office of Chief Judge in one of the federal courts, a judge must have been in active service on the court for at least one year, be under the age of 65, and have not previously served as Chief Judge. A vacancy in the office of Chief Judge is filled by the judge highest in seniority among the group of qualified judges. The Chief Judge serves for a term of seven years or until age 70, whichever occurs first. The age restrictions are waived if no members of the court would otherwise be qualified for the position. Unlike the Chief Justice of the United States, a Chief Judge returns to active service after the expiration of his or her term and does not create a vacancy on the bench by the fact of his or her promotion. See 28 U.S.C. § 45.

These rules for Chief Judges in the federal judiciary have been in effect since October 1, 1982. The office of Chief Judge was created in 1948. Until August 6, 1959, the position was filled in each federal court by the longest-serving judge who had not elected to retire on what has since 1958 been known as senior status or declined to serve as Chief Judge. From then until 1982 it was filled by the senior such judge who had not turned 70.