28 USC § 88 - District of Columbia

---
identifier: "/us/usc/t28/s88"
source: "usc"
legal_status: "official_legal_evidence"
title: "28 USC § 88 - District of Columbia"
title_number: 28
title_name: "JUDICIARY AND JUDICIAL PROCEDURE"
section_number: "88"
section_name: "District of Columbia"
chapter_number: 5
chapter_name: "DISTRICT COURTS"
part_number: "I"
part_name: "ORGANIZATION OF COURTS"
positive_law: true
currency: "119-84"
last_updated: "2026-04-17"
format_version: "1.1.0"
generator: "[email protected]"
source_credit: "(June 25, 1948, ch. 646, 62 Stat. 875.)"
---


# § 88. District of Columbia

The District of Columbia constitutes one judicial district.

Court shall be held at Washington.

---

**Source Credit**: (June 25, 1948, ch. 646, 62 Stat. 875.)

### Historical and Revision Notes

This section expressly makes the District of Columbia a judicial district of the United States.

also makes the District of Columbia a judicial circuit of the United States.

Section 11–305 of the District of Columbia Code, 1940 ed., provides that the District Court of the United States for the District of Columbia shall possess the same powers and exercise the same jurisdiction as the district courts of the United States, and shall be deemed a court of the United States.

> “* * * The parallelism between the Supreme Court of the District [of Columbia] and the Court of Appeals of the District [of Columbia], on the one hand, and the district courts of the United States and the circuit courts of appeals, on the other, in the consideration and disposition of cases involving what among the States would be regarded as within Federal jurisdiction, is complete.”

It is consonant with the ruling of the Supreme Court in , 1933, 53 S.Ct. 740, 289 U.S. 516, 77 L.Ed. 1356, that the (then called) Supreme Court and Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia are constitutional courts of the United States, ordained and established under article III of the Constitution, Congress enacted that the Court of Appeals “shall hereafter be known as the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia” (Act of , ); and also changed the name of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia to “district court of the United States for the District of Columbia” (Act of , ). In , 1927, 47 S.Ct. 557, 274 U.S. 145, 71 L.Ed. 972, the Supreme Court ruled: 
 See also to the same effect , 1932, 52 S.Ct. 440, 285 U.S. 382, 76 L.Ed. 808.