U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit

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Current United States federal appellate court

United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
(10th Cir.)
Location
Appeals from
Established
Judges
Circuit Justice
Chief Judge
www.ca10.uscourts.gov

The United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit (in case citations, 10th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:

• District of Colorado
• District of Kansas
• District of New Mexico
• Eastern District of Oklahoma
• Northern District of Oklahoma
• Western District of Oklahoma
• District of Utah
• District of Wyoming

Although the 37th United States Congress passed the Tenth Circuit Act of 1863, the circuit ceased to exist after six years due to the Judiciary Act of 1869. These districts were part of the Eighth Circuit until 1929. The court is composed of twelve active judges and is based at the Byron White U.S. Courthouse in Denver, Colorado. It is one of thirteen [United States courts of appeals](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_courts_of_appeals "United States courts of appea

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History

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U.S. Post Office and Courthouse, as it appeared around 1916.

Congress created a new judicial circuit in 1929 to accommodate the increased caseload in the federal courts. Between 1866 and 1912, twelve new states had entered the Union and been incorporated into the Eighth and Ninth Circuits. The Eighth Circuit encompassed 13 states and had become the largest in the nation.[2]

Chief Justice William Howard Taft suggested the reorganization of the Eighth Circuit Court in response to widespread opposition in 1928 to a proposal to reorganize the nation's entire circuit structure. The original plan had sprung from an American Bar Association committee in 1925 and would have changed the composition of all but two circuits.[2]

The House of Representatives considered two proposals to divide the existing Eighth Circuit. A bill by Representative Walter Newton would separate the circuit's eastern and western states. An alternate proposal divided the northern from the southern states. With the judges and bar of the existing Eighth Circuit for Newton's bill and little opposition to dividing the circuit, lawmakers focused on providing for more judgeships and meeting places of the circuit courts of appeals in their deliberations.[2]

In 1929, Congress passed a law that placed the federal U.S. district courts in Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Missouri, and Arkansas in the Eighth Circuit and created a Tenth Circuit that included Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Kansas, and Oklahoma. Three additional judgeships were authorized and the sitting circuit judges were reassigned according to their residence. The Tenth Circuit was assigned a total of four judgeships.[3]

List of former judges

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#	Judge	State	Born–died	Active service	Chief Judge	Senior status	Appointed by	Reason for termination
1	Robert E. Lewis	CO	1857–1941	1929–1940	—	1940–1941	Harding / Operation of law[6]	death
2	John Hazelton Cotteral	OK	1864–1933	1929–1933	—	—	Coolidge / Operation of law[7]	death
3	Orie Leon Phillips	NM	1885–1974	1929–1956	1948–1956	1956–1974	Hoover	death
4	George McDermott	KS	1886–1937	1929–1937	—	—	Hoover	death
5	Sam G. Bratton	NM	1888–1963	1933–1961	1956–195

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Current composition of the court

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As of December 13, 2023[update]:

#	Title	Judge	Duty station	Born	Term of service	Appointed by
Active	Chief	Senior
---	---	---
38	Chief Judge	Jerome Holmes	Oklahoma City, OK	1961	2006–present	2022–present
33	Circuit Judge	Harris Hartz	Albuquerque, NM	1947	2001–present	—
36	Circuit Judge	Timothy Tymkovich	Denver, CO	1956	2003–present	2015–2022
39	Circuit Judge	Scott Matheson Jr.	Salt Lake City, UT	1953	2010–present	—
40	Circuit Judge	Robert E. Bacharach	Oklahoma City, OK	1959	2013–present	—
41	Circuit Judge	Gregory A. Phillips	Cheyenne, WY	1960	2013–present	—
42	Circuit Judge	Carolyn B. McHugh	Salt Lake City, UT	1957	2014–present	—
43	Circuit Judge	Nancy Moritz	Topeka, KS	1960	2014–present	—
44	Circuit Judge	Allison H. Eid	Denver, CO	1965	2017–present	—
45	Circuit Judge	Joel M. Carson III	Roswell, NM	1971	2018–present	—
46	Circuit Judge	Veronica S. Rossman	Denver, CO	1972	2021–present	—
47	Circuit Judge	Richard Federico	Topeka, KS	1977	2023–present	—
21	Senior Judge	Stephanie Kulp Seymour	inactive	1940	1979–2005	1994–2000
22	Senior Judge	John Carbone Porfilio[4]	inactive	1934	1985–1999	—
23	Senior Judge	Stephen H. Anderson	inactive	1932	1985–2000	—

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