28 U.S.C. § 118
Section 118 · Pennsylvania
Amended 5 times on record
Applied in 119 court decisions — leading case Fahey v. Mallonee (1947)
Most recently applied in United States v. Derrick Godfrey (February 2017)
Cases citing this section usually also cite 28 U.S.C. § 112 · 28 U.S.C. § 1331 · 28 U.S.C. § 41
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.
Pennsylvania is divided into three judicial districts to be known as the Eastern, Middle, and Western Districts of Pennsylvania.
(a) The Eastern District comprises the counties of Berks, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Lancaster, Lehigh, Montgomery, Northampton, and Philadelphia.
Court for the Eastern District shall be held at Allentown, Easton, Lancaster, Reading, and Philadelphia.
(b) The Middle District comprises the counties of Adams, Bradford, Cameron, Carbon, Centre, Clinton, Columbia, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Fulton, Huntingdon, Juniata, Lackawanna, Lebanon, Luzerne, Lycoming, Mifflin, Monroe, Montour, Northumberland, Perry, Pike, Potter, Schuylkill, Snyder, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga, Union, Wayne, Wyoming, and York.
Court for the Middle District shall be held at Harrisburg, Lewisburg, Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, and Williamsport.
(c) The Western District comprises the counties of Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Bedford, Blair, Butler, Cambria, Clarion, Clearfield, Crawford, Elk, Erie, Fayette, Forest, Greene, Indiana, Jefferson, Lawrence, McKean, Mercer, Somerset, Venango, Warren, Washington, and Westmoreland.
Court for the Western District shall be held at Erie, Johnstown, and Pittsburgh.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Historical and Revision Notes
Based on title 28, U.S.C., 1940 ed., §184 (Mar. 3, 1911, ch. 231, §103, 36 Stat. 1123; Mar. 3, 1913, ch. 113, 37 Stat. 730; June 6, 1914, ch. 104, 38 Stat. 385; Sept. 9, 1914, ch. 296, 38 Stat. 713; Apr. 26, 1926, ch. 185, 44 Stat. 324; June 27, 1930, ch. 634, 46 Stat. 820; Aug. 3, 1935, ch. 433, 49 Stat. 514; May 13, 1936, ch. 385, 49 Stat. 1271; June 13, 1938, ch. 351, 52 Stat. 674; Mar. 5, 1942, ch. 143, 56 Stat. 132).
Provisions relating to maintenance of offices at certain places by the clerks and marshals were omitted as covered by sections 541 [see 561] and 751 of this title.
Provisions for the continuance of terms were omitted as covered by section 139 of this title.
Provisions with respect to the return of process, and the places of keeping court papers, were omitted as matters for determination by rule of court or for the action of the judicial council in cooperation with the Administrative Office of the United States Courts.
The provisions for trial of cases at Lewisburg and Erie unless counsel consent to trial elsewhere were omitted as inconsistent with the uniform practice provided by this title.
Changes were made in phraseology and arrangement.
Senate Revision Amendment
By Senate amendment to the bill, Blair County was transferred from the Middle District to the Western District of Pennsylvania. This was in conformity with Act July 11, 1947, ch. 224, 61 Stat. 310, which so amended section 184 of title 28, U.S.C., 1940 ed., the source of this section. See 80th Congress Senate Report No. 1559.
Amendments
1998—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 105–277, §101(b) [title VI, §624(a)(1)], substituted “and Philadelphia” for “Philadelphia, and Schuylkill”.
Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 105–277, §101(b) [title VI, §624(a)(2)], inserted “Schuylkill,” after “Potter,”.
1992—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 102–396 inserted “Lancaster,” before “Reading”.
1978—Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 95–573 provided for holding court at Johnstown.
1970—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 91–272 provided for holding court at Allentown and Reading.
Effective Date of 1998 Amendment
Pub. L. 105–277, div. A, §101(b) [title VI, §624(b)], Oct. 21, 1998, 112 Stat. 2681–50, 2681–116, provided that:
“(1) This section [amending this section] and the amendments made by this section shall take effect 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act [Oct. 21, 1998].
“(2) This section and the amendments made by this section shall not affect any action commenced before the effective date of this section and pending on such date in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
“(3) This section and the amendments made by this section shall not affect the composition, or preclude the service, of any grand or petit jury summoned, impaneled, or actually serving on the effective date of this section.”