The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California (in case citations, E.D. Cal.) is composed of six divisions.

The Bakersfield division has jurisdiction over certain cases in Inyo and Kern counties and on federal lands and National Parks. These cases are heard in courthouses in Bakersfield, Edwards Air Force Base, and Independence.

The Fresno division covers Calaveras, Fresno, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, Stanislaus, Tulare, and Tuolumne counties.

The Redding/Susanville office hears misdemeanors and petty crimes for federal lands and National Parks in four locations: Alturas, Chester, Herlong, and Redding.

The Sacramento division covers: Alpine, Amador, Butte, Colusa, El Dorado, Glenn, Lassen, Modoc, Mono, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Solano, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity, Yolo, and Yuba counties.

The South Lake Tahoe office hears misdemeanors and petty crimes for federal lands and National Parks.

The Yosemite office hears misdemeanors and petty crimes for Yosemite National Park.

Cases from the Eastern District of California are appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. government under the Tucker Act, which are appealed to the Federal Circuit).

The current Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California is Lawrence G. Brown, who was appointed by the Bush administration Department of Justice and sworn in on January 5, 2009 following the resignation of U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott.
As First Assistant U.S. Attorney, Brown had served since March 2003 as second-in-command of the office under U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott, a President George W. Bush appointee.

History

California was admitted as a state on September 9, 1850, and was initially divided into two districts, the Northern and the Southern, by Act of Congress approved September 28, 1850, 9 Stat. 521., Federal Judicial Center. The boundary line was at the 37th parallel of North Latitude.Willoughby Rodman, History of the Bench and Bar of Southern California (1909), p. 46. The Southern District of California was abolished and the State made to constitute a single district - the United States District Court for the District of California - by Act of Congress approved July 27, 1866, 14 Stat. 300. Twenty years later, on August 5, 1886, Congress re-created the Southern District of California by 24 Stat. 308, but it was not until March 18, 1966, that the Eastern and Central Districts were created from portions of the Northern and Southern Districts by 80 Stat. 75.

Current Judges

• As of January 1, 2009, a vacancy has existed in the Eastern District of California due Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr.'s decision to assume senior status. No replacement nomination is pending at this time.

Former Judges