The United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts is the Federal district court whose jurisdiction is the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 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 are heard by the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, also headquartered in Boston.

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 Michael J. Sullivan.

District Judges

(13 authorized judgeships)

• John Lowell (1789-1801)
• John Davis (judge) (1801-1841)
• Peleg Sprague (1841-1865)
• Judge John Lowell (1865-1879)
• Thomas Leverett Nelson (1879-1897)
• Francis Cabot Lowell (judge) (1898-1905)
• Frederic Dodge (1905-1912)
• James Madison Morton, Jr. (1912-1932)
• Elisha Hume Brewster (1922-1946)
• James Arnold Lowell (1922-1933)
• Hugh Dean McLellan (1932-1941)
• George Clinton Sweeny (1935-1966)
• Francis Joseph William Ford(1938-1975)
• Arthur Daniel Healey (1941-1948)
• Charles Edward Wyzanski, Jr. (1941-1986)
• William T. McCarthy(1949-1964)
• Bailey Aldrich (1954-1959)
• Anthony Julian (1959-1984)
• Andrew Augustine Caffrey (1960-1993)
• Wendell Arthur Garrity, Jr. (1966-1999)
• Frank Jerome Murray (1967-1995)
• Levin Hicks Campbell (1971-1972)
• Frank Harlan Freedman (1972-2003)
• Joseph Louis Tauro (1972-present)
• Walter Jay Skinner (1973-2005)
• A. David Mazzone (1978-2004)
• Robert Ernest Keeton (1979-2007)
• John Joseph McNaught (1979-1991)
• David Sutherland Nelson (1979-1998)
• Rya Weickert Zobel (1979-present)
• Mark Lawrence Wolf (1985-present)
• William G. Young (1985-present)
• Douglas Preston Woodlock (1986-present)
• Edward Francis Harrington (1988-present)
• Nathaniel M. Gorton (1992-present)
• Reginald C. Lindsay (1993-present)
• Patti B. Saris (1993-present)
• Richard Gaylore Stearns (1993-present)
• Nancy Gertner (1994-present)
• Michael Adrian Ponsor (1994-present)
• George A. O'Toole, Jr. (1995-present)
• F. Dennis Saylor, IV (2004-present)

Magistrate Judges

• Rudolph F. Pierce (1976-1979)
• Patti B. Saris (1985-1989)
• Peter W. Prince (1971-1981)
• Charles B. Swartwood (1973-2006)
• Robert P. DeGiacomo (1980-1985)
• Mihchael A. Ponsor (1984-1994)
• Willie J. Davis (1971-1976)
• Lawrence P. Cohen (1976-2005)
• Zachary R. Karol (1993-1999)
• Joyce London Alexander (1979-present)
• Mariane B. Bowler (1990-present)
• Robert B. Collings (1982-present)
• Judith G, Dein (2000-present)
• Leo T. Sorokin (2005-present)
• Timothy S. Hillman (2006-present)

External links

• United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts Official Website
• United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Official Website