United States District Court for the District of Maine

	District of Maine
	First Circuit
	;
	Active judges
	Woodcock • Singal • Torresen
	Senior Judges
	Carter • Hornby
	Magistrate Judges
	Kravchuk • Rich
	Former Judges

	District of Maine
	First Circuit
	;
	Active judges
	Woodcock • Singal • Torresen
	Senior Judges
	Carter • Hornby
	Magistrate Judges
	Kravchuk • Rich
	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 United States District Court for the District of Maine, often referred to as just the District of Maine, is the United States district court for Maine. The District of Maine was one of the original thirteen district courts established by the Judiciary Act of 1789, even though Maine was not a separate state from Massachusetts until 1820. The court is headquartered in Portland, Maine and has a second courthouse in Bangor, Maine. The U.S. Attorney for the District of Maine represents the United States in criminal and civil litigation before the court. The current United States Attorney is Paula Silsby.

Vacancy warning level

The United States District Court for the District of Maine's vacancy warning level is currently set at green. The court currently has no vacancies.

Jurisdiction

The Counties of Maine (click for larger map)

The jurisdiction of the District of Maine consists of all the counties in the state of Maine. The court's headquarters are in Portland, with a courthouse in Bangor.^[1]

When decisions of the court are appealed, they are appealed to the First Circuit Court of Appeals based in Downtown Boston at the John Joseph Moakley Federal Courthouse.

Cases heard

The District of Maine 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	534	829	1363	822	541	8.8	6.9	6(1.5%)	5.0	18
2009	461	814	1275	740	535	7.6	6.8	3(.7%)	0	18
2008	436	703	1139	677	462	6.7	7.0	8(2.7)	0	22
2007	411	720	1131	680	451	7.2	6.5	5(1.7%)	0	20
2006	468	623	1091	704	387	8.0	7.7	23(8.4%)	0	20

^*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 District of Maine has two courthouses. Christa K. Berry currently serves as Clerk of Court. Contact information can be found below.

Branch	Address	Phone number	Email
Portland Division	Edward T. Gignoux United States Courthouse 156 Federal Street Portland, Maine 04101	(207) 780-3356
Bangor Division	Margaret Chase Smith Federal Building and United States Courthouse 202 Harlow Street Bangor, Maine 04401	(207) 945-0575

^[2]

History

Court history

The District of Maine was one of the original thirteen district courts established by the Judiciary Act of 1789. A district court was created in each of the eleven states that had ratified the Constitution by September, 1789, as well as in Maine (then part of Massachusetts) and Kentucky (then still part of Virginia). The court only had one judge until an additional judgeship was authorized in 1978. A third judgeship was authorized in 1990.^[3]

Judicial posts

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

Year	Statute	Total Seats
September 24, 1789	1 Stat. 73	1
October 20, 1978	92 Stat. 1629	2
December 1, 1990	104 Stat. 5089	3

^[3]

Notable cases

For a searchable list of opinions, please see Opinions for the District of Maine.

• GMAC Mortgage Co. case Judge(s):D. Brock Hornby
*Nicolle Bradbury, et al. v. Gmac Mortgage, LLC. CIVIL NO. 10-458-P-H

In February 2011, Judge Hornby threw out two of three counts that had been brought against GMAC Mortgage Co. in a case related to "robo-signing" of documents in foreclosure proceedings. Brock said that the lawsuit could not proceed on counts related to abuse of process and fraud. However, he allowed a lawsuit to proceed on a count that robo-signing violates Maine's Unfair Trade Practices Act. ^[4]

• Occupy Augusta Protestors Eviction Judge(s):Nancy Torresen
*Freeman v. Morris 11-cv-00452-NT

In late November 2011, federal judge Nancy Torresen brokered a deal that allowed Occupy Augusta protesters to remain in a public park for an additional week. ^[5] Torresen issued the order on November 28, after protesters said they would face arrest rather than leave Augusta's Capitol Park. Attorney Lynne Williams, acting on behalf of the protesters, had sought a temporary restraining order to prevent police from shutting down the protests. The protesters did not apply for a permit. The lawsuit alleged that requiring protesters to obtain a permit violates their First Amendment rights. A hearing to determine what happens after the week-long reprieve took place on December 5th. ^[6]

Update

On December 9, 2011, Torrensen ruled against the tent city in Augusta, affirming the right of the state to evict the Occupy protesters. While she held that the protesters were protected by the First Amendment, the state was within its rights to place restrictions on the time and place of the protest by requiring a permit. The protesters opted not to appeal the decision or apply for a permit and instead broke down the camp and vacated the premises.^[7]

Federal courthouse

Major news

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

External links

References

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 District of Maine has 3 posts and 0 vacancies. The current Chief Judge is John Woodcock. This is a list of the current judges on the court:

Judge	Born	Home	Appointed by	Active	Chief	Preceeded	Bachelors	Law
Judge George Singal	1945	Florence, Italy	Clinton	7/11/2000 - Present	2003 - 2009	Morton Brody	University of Maine, B.A., 1967	Harvard Law School, J.D., 1970
Chief judge John Woodcock	1950	Bangor, ME	W. Bush	6/16/2003 - Present	2009 - Present	Gene Carter	Bowdoin College, B.A., 1972	University of Maine School of Law, J.D., 1976
Judge Nancy Torresen	1959	Ridgewood, NJ	Obama	10/3/2011 - Present		D. Brock Hornby	Hope College, B.A., 1981	U. of Michigan Law, J.D., 1987

Pending appointments

There are no current pending appointments for the United States District Court for the District of Maine.

Senior judges

See: Federal judges on senior status
The United States District Court for the District of Maine has 2 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 D. Brock Hornby	H.W. Bush	4/30/1990 - 5/1/2010	1996 - 2003	5/1/2010 - Present	U. of Western Ontario, B.A., 1965	Harvard Law, J.D., 1969
Senior Judge Gene Carter	Reagan	6/23/1983 - 1/2/2003	1989 - 1996	1/2/2003 - Present	University of Maine, B.A., 1958	New York University School of Law, LL.B., 1961

Magistrate judges

Judge	Active	Bachelors	Law
Magistrate Judge Margaret Kravchuk	01/2000-Present	Bethany College, B.A., 1970	U. of Maine Law, J.D., 1976
Magistrate Judge John Rich	4/02/2008	Bowdoin College, A.B., 1978	U. of Pennsylvania Law, J.D., 1982

Past judges

Former Chief judges

Judge	Term
Edward Gignoux	1978-1983
Gene Carter	1989 - 1996
D. Brock Hornby	1996 - 2003
George Singal	2003 - 2009

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.

Former judges

Seat 1

Seat 2

Seat 3

Judge	Term
Gignoux	8/26/1957-6/1/1983
Clifford	3/24/1947-11/18/1956
Peters	11/14/1921 - 1/2/1947
Hale	5/19/1902-1/1/1922
Webb	1/24/1882-6/30/1902
Fox	5/30/1866-12/14/1881
Ware	2/15/1822-5/31/1866
Parris	1/28/1818-1/1/1822
Sewall	9/26/1789-1/9/1818
Carter	6/23/1983 - 1/2/2003
Woodcock	6/16/2003 - Present