United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois

United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois
(S.D. Ill.)
Map of the changing boundaries of the Districts of Illinois
Location	East St. Louis, Illinois
Appeals to	Seventh Circuit
Established	February 13, 1855
Judges assigned	4
Chief Judge	Michael Joseph Reagan
Official court website

The United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois (in case citations, S.D. Ill.) is a Federal district court covering approximately the southern half of the state of Illinois.

Appeals from the Southern 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 District Court for the District of Illinois was established by a statute passed by the United States Congress on March 3, 1819, 3 Stat. 502. The act established a single office for a judge to preside over the court. Initially, the court was not within any existing judicial circuit, so the district court exercised the jurisdiction of both a district court and a circuit court, with appeals and writs of error taken directly to the United States Supreme Court. In 1837, Congress placed the District of Illinois within the newly created Seventh Circuit, and the district court resumed its normal jurisdiction, 5 Stat. 176.

The Southern District itself was created by a statute passed on February 13, 1855, 10 Stat. 606, 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: