Title 28 — Judiciary and Judicial ProcedureRelease 119-73
§42 Allotment of Supreme Court justices to circuits
Title 28 › Part PART I— - ORGANIZATION OF COURTS › Chapter CHAPTER 3— - COURTS OF APPEALS › § 42
Summary
The Supreme Court assigns the Chief Justice and the other justices to serve as circuit justices. These assignments can be made while the Court is on break, a justice can cover more than one circuit, and more than one justice can be assigned to the same circuit.
Full Legal Text
Title 28, §42
Judiciary and Judicial Procedure — Source: USLM XML via OLRC
The Chief Justice of the United States and the associate justices of the Supreme Court shall from time to time be allotted as circuit justices among the circuits by order of the Supreme Court. The Chief Justice may make such allotments in vacation. A justice may be assigned to more than one circuit, and two or more justices may be assigned to the same circuit.
Legislative History
Notes & Related Subsidiaries
Historical and Revision Notes
Based on title 28, U.S.C., 1940 ed., § 215 (Mar. 3, 1911, ch. 231, § 119, 36 Stat. 1131; Dec. 23, 1944, ch. 724, 58 Stat. 925). The authority of the Chief Justice in vacation to assign a circuit justice to more than one circuit was extended by omitting the phrase “whenever by reason of death or resignation, no Justice is allotted to a circuit.” The provision in section 215 of Title 28, U.S.C., 1940 ed., that, for the purposes of said section, the “District of Columbia shall be deemed to be a judicial circuit,” was omitted, since the District of Columbia is made a judicial circuit by section 41 of this title. The last paragraph was added to make clear the intent of Congress that the powers of the Court to assign the justices among the several circuits should be completely flexible. Changes were made in phraseology.
Reference
Citations & Metadata
Citation
28 U.S.C. § 42
Title 28 — Judiciary and Judicial Procedure
Last Updated
Apr 6, 2026
Release point: 119-73