About the Collection

The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is known informally as the D.C. Circuit, and is the federal appellate court for the U.S. District court for the District of Columbia.

While it has the smallest geographic jurisdiction of any of the United States courts of appeals, the D.C. Circuit, with eleven active judgeships, is arguably the most important inferior appellate court as the court is given the responsibility of directly reviewing the decisions of many federal independent agencies of the United States government. Given the broad areas over which federal agencies have power, this often gives the judges of the D.C. Circuit a central role in affecting national U.S.policy and law. Because of this, the D.C. Circuit is often referred to as the second most powerful court in the United States, second only to the Supreme Court.