U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit

Cincinnati, Ohio16 authorized judgeships

About the Court

United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit

Current United States federal appellate court

United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
(6th Cir.)


Location
Appealsfrom
Established
Judges
CircuitJustice
ChiefJudge
www.ca6.uscourts.gov

The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (in case citations, 6th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:

The court is composed of sixteen judges and is based at the Potter Stewart U.S. Courthouse in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is one of 13 United States courts of appeals.

The United States federal courts were divided into six c

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History

List of former judges

#	Judge	State	Born–died	Active service	Chief Judge	Senior status	Appointed by	Reason for termination
1	Howell E. Jackson	TN	1832–1895	1891–1893	—	—	Cleveland / Operation of law [3]	elevation
2	William Howard Taft	OH	1857–1930	1892–1900	—	—	B. Harrison	resignation
3	Horace Harmon Lurton	TN	1844–1914	1893–1909	—	—	Cleveland	elevation
4	William R. Day	OH	1849–1923	1899–1903	—	—	McKinley	elevation
5	Henry Franklin Severens	MI	1835–1923	1900–1911	—	—	McKinley	resignation
6	John K. Richards	OH	1856–1909	1903–1909	—	—	T. Roosevelt	death
7	John Wesley Warrington	OH	1844–1921	1909–1919	—	1919–1921	Taft	death
8	Loyal Edwin Knappen	MI	1854–1930	1910–1924	—	1924–1930	Taft	death
9	Arthur Carter Denison	MI	1861–1942	1911–1931	—	—	Taft	resignation
10	Maurice H. Donahue	OH	1864–1928	1919–1928	—	—	Wilson	death
11	Charles Moorman	KY	1876–1938	1925–1938	—	—	Coolidge	death
12	Xenophon Hicks	TN	1872–1952	1928–1952	1948–1952	1952	Coolidge	death
13	Smith Hickenlooper	OH	1880–1933	1928–1933	—	—	Coolidge	death
14	Julian Mack	IL	1866–1943	1929–1930	—	—	[4]	reassignment
15	Charles C. Simons	MI	1876–1964	1932–1959	1952–1958	1959–1964	Hoover	death
16	Florence E. Allen	OH	1884–1966	1934–1959	1958–1959	1959–1966	[F.

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Judges

Current composition of the court

As of April20,2026[update]:

#	Title	Judge	Duty station	Born	Term of service	Appointed by
Active	Chief	Senior
62	Chief Judge	Jeffrey Sutton	Columbus, OH	1960	2003–present	2021–present
56	Circuit Judge	Karen Nelson Moore	Cleveland, OH	1948	1995–present	—
58	Circuit Judge	Eric L. Clay	Detroit, MI	1948	1997–present	—
65	Circuit Judge	Richard Allen Griffin	Traverse City, MI	1952	2005–present	—
67	Circuit Judge	Raymond Kethledge	Ann Arbor, MI	1966	2008–present	—
71	Circuit Judge	Amul Thapar	Covington, KY	1969	2017–present	—
72	Circuit Judge	John K. Bush	Louisville, KY	1964	2017–present	—
73	Circuit Judge	Joan Larsen	Ann Arbor, MI	1968	2017–present	—
74	Circuit Judge	John Nalbandian	Cincinnati, OH	1969	2018–present	—
75	Circuit Judge	Chad Readler	Columbus, OH	1972	2019–present	—
76	Circuit Judge	Eric E. Murphy	Columbus, OH	1979	2019–present	—
77	Circuit Judge	Stephanie D. Davis	Detroit, MI	1967	2022–present	—
78	Circuit Judge	Andre Mathis	Memphis, TN	1980	2022–present	—
79	Circuit Judge	Rachel Bloomekatz	Columbus, OH	1982	2023–present	—
80	Circuit Judge	Kevin G. Ritz	Memphis, TN	1974	2024–present	—
81	Circuit Judge	[Whitney Hermandorfer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_Hermando

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Court overview, history, and judge data sourced from Wikipedia (CC-BY-SA 3.0).

Notable Opinions (2)

DeBoer v. Snyder

772 F.3d 388 (6th Cir. 2014)

United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth CircuitNovember 6, 2014

Upheld state bans on same-sex marriage in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, creating a circuit split that led the Supreme Court to grant certiorari in Obergefell v. Hodges. Judge Sutton's majority opinion applied rational basis review and deferred to democratic processes.

Circuit Courtcivil rightsfamily

United States v. Warshak

631 F.3d 266 (6th Cir. 2010)

United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth CircuitDecember 14, 2010

Held that individuals have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents of their email accounts, and the government must obtain a warrant based on probable cause before compelling email service providers to turn over email contents. A landmark digital privacy decision predating Carpenter v. United States.

Circuit Courtcriminalcivil rights

Jurisdiction

The Sixth Circuit covers the following jurisdictions:

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Court Information

Seat: Cincinnati, Ohio
Authorized Judgeships: 16
Circuit Number: 6th

Other Circuits

First Circuit Second Circuit Third Circuit Fourth Circuit Fifth Circuit Seventh Circuit Eighth Circuit Ninth Circuit Tenth Circuit Eleventh Circuit D.C. Circuit Federal Circuit