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United States District Court for the Southern District of New York | |
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(S.D.N.Y.) | |
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Location | Daniel Patrick Moynihan U.S. Courthouse |
Appeals to | Second Circuit |
Established | April 9, 1814 |
Judges | 28 |
Chief Judge | Laura Taylor Swain |
Officers of the court | |
U.S. Attorney | Damian Williams |
U.S. Marshal | Ralph Sozio |
www.nysd.uscourts.gov |
The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (in case citations, S.D.N.Y.) is a federal trial court whose geographic jurisdiction encompasses eight counties of the State of New York. Two of these are in New York City: New York (Manhattan) and Bronx; six are in the Hudson Valley: Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, Orange, Dutchess, and Sullivan. Appeals from the Southern District of New York are taken to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. government under the Tucker Act, which are appealed to the Federal Circuit).
Because it covers Manhattan, the Southern District of New York has long been one of the most active and influential federal trial courts in the United States. It often has jurisdiction over America's largest financial institutions and prosecution of white-collar crime and other federal crimes.[1] Because of its age and influence, it is sometimes colloquially called the "Mother Court" or the "Sovereign District of New York."[2][3] The district has had several prominent judges on its bench, including Learned Hand, Michael Mukasey, and Sonia Sotomayor, and many of the U.S. attorneys for the district have been prominent American legal and political figures, such as Elihu Root, Henry L. Stimson, Robert Morgenthau, Rudy Giuliani, James Comey, Michael J. Garcia, and Preet Bharara.[4]
In past presidential transitions, the storied office, long known to be so independent of Washington that some people referred to it as the Sovereign District of New York, has in large measure moved forward unaffected by politics.