United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit

United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit

Current United States federal appellate court

United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
(1st Cir.)
Location
Appealsfrom
Established
Judges
CircuitJustice
ChiefJudge
www.ca1.uscourts.gov

The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (in case citations, 1st Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:

• District of Maine
• District of Massachusetts
• District of New Hampshire
• District of Puerto Rico
• District of Rhode Island

The court is based at the John Joseph Moakley Federal Courthouse in Boston, Massachusetts. Most sittings are held in Boston, where the court usually sits for one week most months of the year; in one of July or August, it takes a summer break and does not sit. The First Circuit also sits for one week each March and November at the Jose V. Toledo Federal Building and United States Courthouse in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, and occasionally sits at other locations within the circuit.[1]

With six active judges and five active senior judges, the First Circuit has the fewest judges of any of the thirteen United States courts of appeals. It covers most of New England, as well as Puerto Rico. Following his retirement from the Supreme Court in 2009, Associate Justice David Souter occasionally sat on the First Circuit by designation. Former justice Stephen Breyer began to do so in 2025.[[2]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Court_of_Appeals_for_the_First_Ci

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List of former judges

#	Judge	State	Born–died	Active service	Chief Judge	Senior status	Appointed by	Reason for termination
1	LeBaron B. Colt	RI	1846–1924	1891–1913[Note 1]	—	—	Arthur / Operation of law	resignation
2	William LeBaron Putnam	ME	1835–1918	1892–1917	—	—	B. Harrison	retirement
3	Francis Cabot Lowell	MA	1855–1911	1905–1911	—	—	T. Roosevelt	death
4	William Schofield	MA	1857–1912	1911–1912	—	—	Taft	death
5	Frederic Dodge	MA	1847–1927	1912–1918	—	—	Taft	resignation
6	George Hutchins Bingham	NH	1864–1949	1913–1939	—	1939–1949	Wilson	death
7	Charles Fletcher Johnson	ME	1859–1930	1917–1929	—	1929–1930	Wilson	death
8	George W. Anderson	MA	1861–1938	1918–1931	—	1931–1938	Wilson	death
9	Scott Wilson	ME	1870–1942	1929–1940	—	1940–1942	Hoover	death
10	James Madison Morton Jr.	MA	1869–1940	1932–1939	—	1939–1940	Hoover	death
11	Calvert Magruder	MA	1893–1968	1939–1959	1948–1959	1959–1968	F. Roosevelt	death
12	John Christopher Mahoney	RI	1882–1952	1940–1950	—	1950–1952	F. Roosevelt	death
13	Peter Woodbury	NH	1899–1970	1941–1964	1959–1964	1964–1970	F. Roosevelt	death
14	John Patrick Hartigan	RI	1887–1968	1950–1965	—	1965–1968	Truman	death
15	Bailey Aldrich	MA	1907–2002	1959–1972	1965–1972	1972–2002	[Eisenhower](https://

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Current composition of the court

As of November7,2025[update]:

#	Title	Judge	Duty station	Born	Term of service	Appointed by
Active	Chief	Senior
32	Chief Judge	David J. Barron	Boston, MA	1967	2014–present	2022–present
33	Circuit Judge	Gustavo Gelpí	San Juan, PR	1965	2021–present	—
34	Circuit Judge	Lara Montecalvo	Providence, RI	1974	2022–present	—
35	Circuit Judge	Julie Rikelman	Boston, MA	1972	2023–present	—
36	Circuit Judge	Seth Aframe	Concord, NH	1974	2024–present	—
37	Circuit Judge	Joshua Dunlap	Portland, ME	1983	2025–present	—
18	Senior Judge	Levin H. Campbell	inactive	1927	1972–1992	1983–1990
27	Senior Judge	Sandra Lynch	Boston, MA	1946	1995–2022	2008–2015
28	Senior Judge	Kermit Lipez	Portland, ME	1941	1998–2011	—
29	Senior Judge	Jeffrey R. Howard	Concord, NH	1955	2002–2022	2015–2022
30	Senior Judge	O. Rogeriee Thompson	Providence, RI	1951	2010–2022	—
31	Senior Judge	William J. Kayatta Jr.	Portland, ME	1953	2013–2024	—

Chief judges

Chief Judge
Magruder
Woodbury
Aldrich
Coffin
Campbell
Breyer
Torruella
Boudin
Lynch
Howard
Barron

Chief judges have administrative responsibilities with respect to their circuits,

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