§1821 District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands

Summary

Creates a federal court for the Northern Mariana Islands called the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands. The islands are part of the same federal judicial circuit as Guam. The court must hold sessions on Saipan and wherever else the court decides. The President, with the Senate’s OK, appoints the court’s judge for a 10-year term; the judge keeps working until a successor is ready and can be removed by the President for cause. The judge’s pay equals that of U.S. district judges. When needed, higher judges may temporarily send judges from nearby or related courts, including local judges who are licensed attorneys, judges from Guam, or recalled judges, to help the court. Those temporary judges get full powers, such as making appointments and picking a bank or a newspaper for legal notices. The President, with the Senate’s approval, also names a U.S. attorney and U.S. marshal for the islands (28 U.S.C. chapters 35 and 37 apply). If someone already serving the same job elsewhere is appointed, the appointment covers only the rest of that person’s current term. Federal rules of criminal and other procedure under the listed titles apply to this court and its appeals, except where articles IV and V of the Covenant of March 24, 1976 (90 Stat. 263) say otherwise. In cases under local law, the terms “Attorney for the government” and “United States attorney” in the federal criminal rules include the Attorney General of the Northern Mariana Islands or others the local law allows.