# § 43. Creation and composition of courts
**(a)** There shall be in each circuit a court of appeals, which shall be a court of record, known as the United States Court of Appeals for the circuit.
**(b)** Each court of appeals shall consist of the circuit judges of the circuit in regular active service. The circuit justice and justices or judges designated or assigned shall be competent to sit as judges of the court.
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**Source Credit**: (June 25, 1948, ch. 646, 62 Stat. 870; Pub. L. 88–176, § 1(a), Nov. 13, 1963, 77 Stat. 331.)
### Historical and Revision Notes
Based on title 28, U.S.C., 1940 ed., § 212 (, ).
The provision in , U.S.C., 1940 ed., for a three-judge court of appeals was permissive and did not limit the power of the court to sit in banc. Thus, subsection (b) reflects present status of law, namely, that court is composed of not only circuit judges of the circuit in active service, of whom there may be more than three, but the circuit justice or justices and judges who may be assigned or designated to the court. (See , 1942, 62 S.Ct. 272, 314 U.S. 326, 86 L.Ed. 249 and Reviser’s Notes under .)
Words “with appellate jurisdiction, as hereinafter limited and established” were omitted as covered by section 1291 et seq. of this title, conferring appellate jurisdiction on the courts of appeals.
The term “court of appeals” was substituted in this section and throughout this title for the term “circuit court of appeals.”
Provision for a quorum of the court is now covered by .
## Editorial Notes
### Amendments
1963—Subsec. (b). inserted “regular” before “active service”.
## Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries
### Change of Name of Court
, , provided in part that each circuit court of appeals should, after , be known as a United States Court of Appeals, but that the enactment of act should in no way entail any loss of rights, interruption of jurisdiction, or prejudice to matters pending in any such courts on .