United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit

• Court
• Judges

Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Chief: Frank Easterbrook Judges: 10 Posts: 11 Vacancies: 1 Active judges Flaum • Hamilton • Kanne • Posner • Rovner • Sykes • Tinder • Williams • Wood Senior Judges Bauer • Cudahy • Manion • Ripple Former Judges

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

The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, sometimes referred to simply as the Seventh Circuit, is one of the thirteen federal appellate courts. The court was established in 1891 and currently has a total of eleven seats. The court is located at the Everett M. Dirksen Federal Building in Downtown Chicago.

Vacancy warning level

Currently the vacancy warning level for the Seventh Circuit is set at blue. The court currently has one vacancy out of their eleven total seats, constituting 9% of the total seats. However, there is one pending nomination awaiting action by the Senate.

Jurisdiction

Map of the Seventh Circuit. Click on a district to find out more about it.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has appellate jurisdiction over the courts in the following districts:

• Central District of Illinois
• Northern District of Illinois
• Southern District of Illinois
• Northern District of Indiana
• Southern District of Indiana
• Eastern District of Wisconsin
• Western District of Wisconsin

The court is based at the Everett M. Dirksen Federal Building in Downtown Chicago. It is one of thirteen United States courts of appeals, composed of eleven judges.

The court offers a unique internet presence that includes wiki and RSS feeds of opinions and oral arguments. No other United States District or Appellate Court offers oral arguments using these feeds to the internet with the exception of United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit which offers RSS features.

Cases heard

The Seventh Circuit has appellate jurisdiction over cases heard in one of its subsidiary districts. 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	Terminations on merits:	Terminations on Procedure	Cross Appeals:	Total Terminations:	Written decisions per Judge**
2010	2174	3124	5298	3398	1900	1512	1695	191	3398	112
2009	2273	3337	5610	3435	2175	1641	1601	193	3435	128
2008	2247	3037	5284	3281	2003	1338	1686	257	3281	105
2007	2299	3227	5526	3280	2246	1467	1638	175	3280	117
2006	2461	3634	6095	3803	2292	1721	1890	192	3803	134

*All statistics are taken from the Official Federal Courts' Website (for District Courts) and reflect the calendar year through September.    **This statistic reflects only judges that are active for the entire 12 month period.

Clerk's office

Clerk's Office
U.S. Court of Appeals
Room 2722
219 S. Dearborn Street
Chicago, IL 60604

Phone:(312) 435-5850

History

Court history

This federal judiciary article needs to be expanded.

---

The Seventh Circuit was established by the United States Congress in 1981 through the same statute that established the first nine appeals circuits. Over the years, nine additional seats were added to the court resulting in a total of eleven seats. The court has moved six times throughout its history, but has always remained in Chicago, IL.

Judicial posts

The following table highlights the development of judicial posts for the Seventh Circuit:

Year	Statute	Total Seats
March 3, 1891	26 Stat. 826	2
February 8, 1895	28 Stat. 643	3
March 3, 1905	33 Stat. 992	4
May 31, 1938	52 Stat. 584	5
August 3, 1949	63 Stat. 493	6
May 19, 1961	75 Stat. 80	7
March 18, 1966	80 Stat. 75	8
October 20, 1978	92 Stat. 1629,1632	9
July 10, 1984	98 Stat. 333	11

Notable cases

This page is missing notable case information.

---

For a search-able list of decisions from the Fourth Circuit, please see:
Seventh Circuit Searchable Opinions

Federal courthouse

The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has moved into six different court buildings. The original building was located at the N.W. corner of Monroe Street and Dearborn Street and shared space with the U.S. Customs House and Post Office. The building was gutted by the Great Chicago Fire in 1871. The court moved to a newly constructed building in 1980 located between Clark, Adams and Dearborn Streets and Jackson Boulevard. The building was poorly constructed and the court moved again in 1894 to the Monadnock building at the corner of Jackson Boulevard and Dearborn Street. The Monadnock building served as a temporary home until a new courthouse was built in 1905 by architect Henry Ives Cobb. The court moved again in 1938 to 1212 Lake Shore Drive and one final time in 1965 to its present location at the Everett M. Dirksen Federal Building. The current building was constructed by principal architect Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe. The official court website describes the building, stating,

"The block-long building rises thirty stories on a skeleton of structural steel, supported by concrete caissons extending to rock one hundred feet below sidewalk level. It is sheathed in a curtain wall of steel, aluminum and bronze-tinted glass. The entire ground level area is paved in granite, extending to the lobby as interior paving and onto the elevator core walls."

Judicial nominating commission

In April 2013, Senators Tammy Baldwin and Ron Johnson created the Wisconsin Federal Nominating Commission. The commission will recommend nominees for the following courts: Eastern District of Wisconsin, Western District of Wisconsin and Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. The commission will also recommend United States Attorneys for the Eastern and Western Districts. It will be comprised of six members of the Wisconsin State Bar, with three members appointed by each senator.

See also

• United States court of appeals

External links

• United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
• Judges of the Seventh Circuit
• Recent opinions from FindLaw
• 7th Circuit Official Opinions Database
• Official wiki of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit — Launched April 18, 2007

References

• Federal Law Clerk Information System
• Website of the University of Texas Law School
• Federal Judicial Center
• Portions of this article have been copied from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Chief: Frank Easterbrook Judges: 10 Posts: 11 Vacancies: 1 Active judges Flaum • Hamilton • Kanne • Posner • Rovner • Sykes • Tinder • Williams • Wood Senior Judges Bauer • Cudahy • Manion • Ripple Former Judges

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

Front entrance of the Dirksen Courthouse

Active judges

Article III judges

See: Article III federal judge
The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has 10 posts and 1 vacancy. The current Chief Justice is Frank Easterbrook. This is a list of the current judges on the court:

Judge	Born	Home	Appointed by	Active	Chief	Preceeded	Bachelors	Law
Judge Diane Sykes	1957	Milwaukee, WI	W. Bush	8/24/2004 - Present		John Coffey	Northwestern U. '80	Marquette U. Law '84
Judge Diane Wood	July 4, 1950	Plainfield, New Jersey	Clinton	6/30/1995 - Present		William Bauer	U. of Texas, Austin '71	U. of Texas Law '75
Chief Justice Frank Easterbrook	1948	Buffalo, NY	Reagan	4/4/1985 - Present	2006 - Present		Swarthmore College '70	U. of Chicago Law '73
Judge Ann Williams	1949	Detroit, MI	Clinton	11/15/1999 - Present		Walter Cummings	Wayne State U. '70	Notre Dame Law '75
Judge Joel Flaum	1936	Hudson, NY	Reagan	5/5/1983 - Present	2000-2006	Robert Sprecher	Union College '58	Northwestern U. Law '63
Judge Ilana Rovner	1938	Riga, Latvia	H.W. Bush	8/17/1992 - Present		Harlington Wood	Bryn Mawr College '60	Chicago-Kent Law '66
Judge Michael Kanne	1938	Rensselaer, IN	Reagan	5/20/1987 - Present		Jesse Eschbach	Indiana U. '62	Indiana U. Law '68
Judge Richard Posner	1939	New York, NY	Reagan	12/1/1981 - Present	1993-2000	Philip Tone	Yale University, 1959	Harvard Law, 1962
Judge David Hamilton	1957	Bloomington, IN	Obama	11/23/2009 - Present		Kenneth Ripple	Haverford College, B.A., 1979	Yale Law School, J.D., 1983
Judge John Tinder	1950	Indianapolis, IN	W. Bush	12/21/2007 - Present		Daniel Manion	Indiana U. '72	Indiana U. Law '75

Pending appointments

There are no current pending appointments for the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

Senior judges

See: Federal judges on senior status
The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has 6 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 Daniel Manion	Reagan	7/24/1986 - 12/18/2007		12/18/2007 - Present	Notre Dame '64	Indiana U. Law '73
Senior Judge Ken Ripple	Reagan	5/10/1985 - 9/1/2008		9/1/2008 - Present	Fordham U. '65	U. of Virginia Law '68
Senior Judge William Bauer	Ford	12/20/1974 - 10/31/1994	1986-1993	10/31/1994 - Present	Elmhurst College '49	DePaul U. Law '52
Senior Judge Richard Cudahy	Carter	9/26/1979 - 8/15/1994		8/15/1994 - Present	West Point '48	Yale Law '55

Past judges

Former Chief judges

Judge	Term
John Hastings	1959-1968
Walter Cummings	1981-1986
Latham Castle	1968-1970
Luther Swygert	1970 - 1975
Francis Duffy	1954-1959
James Earl Major	1948-1954
William Morris Sparks	1948
Thomas Fairchild	1975-1981
William Bauer	1986-1993
Richard Posner	1993-2000
Joel Flaum	2000-2006

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

1. John Paul Stevens
2. Julian William Mack
3. Terence Evans
4. John Coffey
5. Jesse Eschbach
6. Walter Quintin Gresham
7. Thomas Fairchild
8. Philip Tone
9. William Allen Woods
10. James Graham Jenkins
11. William Henry Seaman
12. John William Showalter
13. Peter Stenger Grosscup
14. Christian Cecil Kohlsaat
15. Albert Barnes Anderson
16. Francis Elisha Baker
17. Samuel Alschuler
18. Evan Alfred Evans
19. Louis FitzHenry
20. George True Page
21. Walter Lindley
22. William Morris Sparks
23. James Earl Major
24. Walter Treanor
25. Francis Duffy
26. Otto Kerner, Sr.
27. Otto Kerner, Jr.
28. Harlington Wood
29. Winfred Knoch
30. William Parkinson
31. Luther Swygert
32. Sherman Minton
33. Latham Castle
34. Walter Cummings
35. Philip Finnegan
36. John Hastings
37. Roger Kiley
38. Wilbur Pell
39. Elmer Schnackenberg
40. Robert Sprecher
41. Hardress Swaim