The United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (in case citations, N.D. Ill.) is the federal trial court with jurisdiction over the northern counties of Illinois. It is one of the busiest federal trial courts in the United States, with famous cases including those of Al Capone and the Chicago Eight.

Appeals from the Northern District of Illinois are taken to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (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 for the district, representing the United States in litigation in the court, is Andrew S. Boutros since April 7, 2025.

Organization The court's jurisdiction is split into an eastern division, including Cook, DuPage, McHenry, Grundy, Kane, Kendall, LaSalle, Lake, and Will counties, with its sessions held in Chicago and Wheaton; and a western division, including Boone, Carroll, DeKalb, Jo Daviess, Lee, Ogle, Stephenson, Whiteside, and Winnebago counties, with its sessions held in Freeport and Rockford.

History The United States District Court for the District of Illinois was established by a statute passed by the United States Congress on March 3, 1819, .Asbury Dickens, A Synoptical Index to the Laws and Treaties of the United States of America (1852), p. 393.U.S. District Courts of Illinois, Legislative history, Federal Judicial Center. The act established a single office for a judge to preside over the court. Initially, the court was not within any existing judicial circuit, and appeals from the court were taken directly to the United States Supreme Court. In 1837, Congress created the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, placing it in Chicago, Illinois and giving it jurisdiction over the District of Illinois, .

The Northern District itself was created by a statute passed on February 13, 1855, , which subdivided the District of Illinois into the Northern and the Southern Districts. The boundaries of the District and the seats of the courts were set forth in the statute:

The district has since been re-organized several times. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Illinois was created on March 3, 1905, by , by splitting counties out of the Northern and Southern Districts. It was later eliminated in a reorganization on October 2, 1978, which replaced it with a Central District, , formed primarily from parts of the Southern District, and returning some counties to the Northern District.

The Northern District of Illinois, which contains the entire Chicago metropolitan area, accounts for 1,531 of the 1,828 public corruption convictions in the state between 1976 and 2012, almost 84%, also making it the federal district with the most public corruption convictions in the nation between 1976 and 2012.

Current judges :

Vacancies and pending nominations Seat Prior judge's duty station Seat last held by Vacancy reason Date of vacancy Nominee Date of nomination 10 Chicago John Tharp Senior status September 30, 2026

Former judges

Chief judges

Succession of seats

List of U.S. attorneys since 1857 Augustus M. Herrington, 1857–1858 Henry S. Fitch, 1858–1861 Edwin C. Larned, 1861 Joseph O. Glover, 1869 Mark Bangs, 1875–1879 Joseph B. Seake, 1879–1884 Richard S. Tuthill, 1884–1886 William G. Ewing, 1886–1890 Thomas E. Milchrist, 1891–1893 Sherwood Dixon, 1893–1894 John C. Black, 1895–1899 Solomon H. Bethea, 1899–1905 Charles B. Morrison, 1905–1906 Edwin W. Sims, 1906–1911 James Herbert Wilkerson, 1911–1914 Charles F. Clyne, 1914–1922 Edwin A. Olson, 1922–1927 George E. Q. Johnson, 1927–1931 Dwight H. Green, 1931–1935 Michael L. Igoe, 1935–1938 William Joseph Campbell, 1938–1940 J. Albert Woll, 1940–1947 Otto Kerner Jr., 1947–1954 Irwin N. Cohen, 1954 Robert Tieken, 1954–1961 James P. O'Brien, 1961–1963 Frank E. McDonald, 1963–1964 Edward Hanrahan, 1964–1968 Tom Foran, 1968–1970 William J. Bauer, 1970–1971 James R. Thompson, 1971–1975 Samuel K. Skinner, 1975–1977 Thomas P. Sullivan, 1977–1981 Gregory C. Jones, 1981 Dan K. Webb, 1981–1985 Anton R. Valukas, 1985–1989 Ira A. Raphaelson, 1989–1990 Fred Foreman, 1990–1993 Michael J. Shepard, 1993 Jim Burns, 1993–1997 Scott R. Lassar, 1997–2001 Patrick Fitzgerald, 2001–2012 Gary S. Shapiro, 2012–2013 Zachary T. Fardon, 2013–2017 Joel R. Levin, 2017 John R. Lausch Jr., 2017–2023 Morris Pasqual, 2023–2025 Andrew S. Boutros, 2025-

See also Courts of Illinois List of current United States district judges List of United States federal courthouses in Illinois

References

External links

United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Official Website Office of Special Counsel, Northern District of Illinois