The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (in case citations, 1st Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:

District of Maine District of Massachusetts District of New Hampshire District of Puerto Rico District of Rhode Island

The court is based at the John Joseph Moakley Federal Courthouse in Boston, Massachusetts. Most sittings are held in Boston, where the court usually sits for one week most months of the year; in one of July or August, it takes a summer break and does not sit. The First Circuit also sits for one week each March and November at the Jose V. Toledo Federal Building and United States Courthouse in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, and occasionally sits at other locations within the circuit.

With six active judges and five active senior judges, the First Circuit has the fewest judges of any of the thirteen United States courts of appeals. It covers most of New England, as well as Puerto Rico. Following his retirement from the Supreme Court in 2009, Associate Justice David Souter occasionally sat on the First Circuit by designation. Former justice Stephen Breyer began to do so in 2025.

Current composition of the court

List of former judges

Chief judges

Succession of seats

Notable decisions West v. Randall (1820), one of the first decisions setting precedent for class action suits In September 2026, a three-judge panel of the First Circuit largely upheld a lower court's decision that the Department of Homeland Security's third-country removal policy was unlawful. Writing for the panel, Circuit Judge Seth R. Aframe held that migrants facing deportation to a third country must be informed of their destination and given a "meaningful opportunity" to challenge it on grounds of feared persecution or torture. US Solicitor General D. John Saurer petitioned the US Supreme Court asking for the Court to block the District Court's ruling, arguing the case "rests on the same fundamentally flalwed legal premises as the previous rulings." On September 29, 2026, the US Supreme Court paused the First Circuit, allowing for third-country removals to continue, until they can rule on the merits of the dispute. Oral arguments are expected in December 2026, with a ruling some time in 2027.

See also Courts of the United States Judicial appointment history for United States federal courts#First Circuit List of current United States circuit judges List of United States federal courthouses in the First Circuit

References Specific

General

External links United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit Recent opinions from Findlaw First Circuit Court Records Finder