28 U.S.C. § 43
Section 43 · Creation and composition of courts
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 20 court decisions — leading case Chandler v. Judicial Council of the Tenth Circuit (1970)
Most recently applied in Joseph Thomas v. Phil Bryant (September 2019)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(a) There shall be in each circuit a court of appeals, which shall be a court of record, known as the United States Court of Appeals for the circuit.
(b) Each court of appeals shall consist of the circuit judges of the circuit in regular active service. The circuit justice and justices or judges designated or assigned shall be competent to sit as judges of the court.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Historical and Revision Notes
Based on title 28, U.S.C., 1940 ed., §212 (Mar. 3, 1911, ch. 231, §117, 36 Stat. 1131).
The provision in section 212 of title 28, U.S.C., 1940 ed., for a three-judge court of appeals was permissive and did not limit the power of the court to sit in banc. Thus, subsection (b) reflects present status of law, namely, that court is composed of not only circuit judges of the circuit in active service, of whom there may be more than three, but the circuit justice or justices and judges who may be assigned or designated to the court. (See Textile Mills Securities Corporation v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 1942, 62 S.Ct. 272, 314 U.S. 326, 86 L.Ed. 249 and Reviser's Notes under section 46 of this title.)
Words “with appellate jurisdiction, as hereinafter limited and established” were omitted as covered by section 1291 et seq. of this title, conferring appellate jurisdiction on the courts of appeals.
The term “court of appeals” was substituted in this section and throughout this title for the term “circuit court of appeals.”
Provision for a quorum of the court is now covered by section 46(d) of this title.
Amendments
1963—Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 88–176 inserted “regular” before “active service”.
Change of Name of Court
Section 2(b) of act June 25, 1948, provided in part that each circuit court of appeals should, after Sept. 1, 1948, be known as a United States Court of Appeals, but that the enactment of act June 25, 1948 should in no way entail any loss of rights, interruption of jurisdiction, or prejudice to matters pending in any such courts on Sept. 1, 1948.
Cross References
Assignment of circuit judges and judges of Court of Claims to other circuits or courts, see section 291 et seq. of this title.
Authority to create courts inferior to Supreme Court, see Const., Art. 3, §1.