The United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts (in case citations, D. Mass.) is the federal district court whose jurisdiction is the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, USA. The first court session was held in Boston in 1789. The second term was held in Salem in 1790 and until 1813 court session locations alternated between the two cities. That year, Boston became the court's permanent home. A western division was opened in Springfield in 1979 and a central division was opened in Worcester in 1987. The court's main building is the John Joseph Moakley Federal Courthouse on Fan Pier in South Boston.
Appeals from the District of Massachusetts are heard by the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, also located in the Moakley courthouse (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. government under the Tucker Act, which are appealed to the Federal Circuit).
The United States Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts represents the United States in civil and criminal litigation in the court. The current U.S. Attorney is Carmen Ortiz.
Read more about United States District Court For The District Of Massachusetts: U.S. Attorneys, Notable Cases
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“What makes the United States government, on the whole, more tolerableI mean for us lucky white menis the fact that there is so much less of government with us.... But in Canada you are reminded of the government every day. It parades itself before you. It is not content to be the servant, but will be the master; and every day it goes out to the Plains of Abraham or to the Champs de Mars and exhibits itself and toots.”
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