Northern District of Indiana
Seventh Circuit
Judgeships
Posts: 5
Judges: 5
Vacancies: 0
Judges
Chief:Holly Brady
Active judges:Holly Brady,Cristal Brisco,Damon R. Leichty,Gretchen S. Lund,Philip Simon Senior judges: Jon E. DeGuilio,Robert Miller,James T. Moody,Theresa Springmann,Joseph Van Bokkelen

TheUnited States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana is one of 94United States district courts. It was created in 1928 by an act of Congress that splitIndiana into two separate districts, northern andUnited States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana. The Northern District of Indiana has courthouses in Fort Wayne, Hammond, Lafayette and South Bend,Indiana. Decisions of the court may be appealed to theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit based inChicago, Illinois, at the Everett M. Dirksen Federal Courthouse and Building.

Vacancies

See also:Current federal judicial vacancies

There are no current vacancies on theUnited States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, out of the court's five judicial positions.

Pending nominations

There are no pending nominees for this court.

Active judges

Article III judges

Active Article III judges by appointing political party

The list below displays the number of active judges by the party of the appointing president. It does not reflect how a judge may rule on specific cases or their own political preferences.

• Democratic appointed: 2
• Republican appointed: 3

Senior judges

Senior judges by appointing political party

The list below displays the number of senior judges by the party of the appointing president. It does not reflect how a judge may rule on specific cases or their own political preferences.

• Democratic appointed: 1
• Republican appointed: 4

Magistrate judges

Federal magistrate judges are federal judges who serve inUnited States district courts, but they are not appointed by the president and they do not serve life terms. Magistrate judges are assigned duties by the district judges in the district in which they serve. They may preside over most phases of federal proceedings, except for criminal felony trials. The specific duties of a magistrate judge vary from district to district, but the responsibilities always include handling matters that would otherwise be on the dockets of the district judges. Full-time magistrate judges serve for renewable terms of eight years. Some federal district courts have part-time magistrate judges, who serve for renewable terms of four years.^[1]

Former chief judges

Former judges

For more information about the judges of the Northern District of Indiana, seeformer federal judges of the Northern District of Indiana.

Jurisdiction

The Counties of the Northern District of Indiana (click for larger map)

The Northern District of Indiana hasoriginal jurisdiction over cases filed within its jurisdiction. These cases can include civil and criminal matters that fall under federal law.

There are three court divisions, each covering the following counties:

TheFort Wayne Division, coveringAdams,Allen,Blackford,DeKalb,Grant,Huntington,Jay,LaGrange,Noble,Steuben,Wells andWhitley counties.^[2]

TheSouth Bend Division, coveringCass,Elkhart,Fulton,Kosciusko,LaPorte,Marshall,Miami,Pulaski,St. Joseph,Starke andWabash counties.^[2]

TheHammond Division, coveringBenton,Carroll,Jasper,Lake,Newton,Porter,Tippecanoe,Warren andWhite counties.^[2]

Caseloads

This section contains court management statistics dating back to 2010. It was last updated in September 2025.

Click[show] below for more information on caseload terms and definitions.

History

Indiana was established as one judicial district by Congress onMarch 3, 1817 with one post to cover the entire state. This district court was not assigned to a judicial circuit and was therefore granted the same jurisdiction as the United States circuit courts, excluding appeals and writs of error, which are the jurisdiction of theUnited States Supreme Court.

OnMarch 3, 1837, Statute5 Stat. 176 allowed Congress to repeal the circuit court jurisdiction of the U.S. District Court for the District of Indiana, and then assigned the district over to theSeventh Circuit. Congress again re-organized the circuits onJanuary 28, 1863, and assigned the District of Indiana to theEighth Circuit, and then again over to theSeventh Circuit onJuly 23, 1866.

Statute45 Stat. 437 onApril 21, 1928, divided the District of Indiana into two judicial districts known as theNorthern District of Indiana and theSouthern District of Indiana. A judgeship was assigned to each new district. Over time 4 additional judicial posts were added for a total of 5 current posts.^[3]

Judicial posts

The following table highlights the development of judicial posts for the Northern District of Indiana:^[3]

Noteworthy cases

For a searchable list of opinions, please seeJustia.com-Dockets and Filings-Northern District of Indiana.

Federal courthouse

Four separate courthouses serve the Northern District of Indiana and are located in Fort Wayne, Hammond, Lafayette, and South Bend.^[4]

About United States District Courts

TheUnited States district courts are the generaltrial courts of theUnited States federal courts. There are 94 such courts. Bothcivil andcriminal cases are filed in the district court, which is a court of both law and equity.

There is aUnited States bankruptcy court and a number ofbankruptcy judges associated with each United States district court. Eachfederal judicial district has at least one courthouse, and most districts have more than one.

There is at least one judicial district for each state, and one each for Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. District courts in three insular areas—the United States Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands—exercise the same jurisdiction as U.S. district courts. Despite their name, these courts are technically not District Courts of the United States. Judges on theseterritorial courts do not enjoy the protections ofArticle III of the Constitution, and serve terms of 10 years rather than for life.

There are677 U.S. District Court judgeships.^[5][6]

The number of federal district judge positions is set by the U.S. Congress in Title 28 of the U.S. Code, Section 133, which authorizes a set number of judge positions, or judgeships, making changes and adjustments in these numbers from time to time.

In order to relieve the pressure of trying the hundreds of thousands of cases brought before the federal district courts each year, many trials are tried by juries, along with a presiding judge.^[7]

Appointments by president

The chart below shows the number of district court judges confirmed by the U.S. Senate through February 1 of the second year of presidents' second term in office. At this point in the term, President Obama had the most district court appointments with 32.

Judges by district

See also:Judicial vacancies in federal courts

The table below displays the number of judges in each district and indicates how many were appointed by presidents from each major political party. It also includes the number of vacancies in a district and how many pending nominations for that district are before theUnited States Senate. The table can be sorted by clicking the column headers above the line, and you can navigate through the pages by clicking the arrows at the top of the table. It is updated every Monday.

Judicial selection

The district courts are served byArticle III federal judges who are appointed for life during "good behavior." They are usually first recommended by senators (or members of the House, occasionally). The President of the United States makes the appointments, which must then be confirmed by the U.S. Senate in accordance withArticle III of the United States Constitution.^[6]

Step	A Candidacy Proceeds	A Candidacy Halts
1. Recommendation made by Congress Member to the President	President Nominates toSenate Judiciary Committee	President Declines Nomination
2. Senate Judiciary Committee interviews Candidate	Sends candidate to Senate for confirmation	Returns candidate to President, who may re-nominate to Committee
3. Senate votes on candidate confirmation	Candidate becomes federal judge	Candidate does not receive judgeship

Magistrate judges

The district courts are also served by magistrate judges. Congress created the judicial office offederal magistrate in 1968. In 1990, the position title was changed tomagistrate judge. The chief judge of each district appoints one or more magistrate judges, who discharge many of the ancillary duties of district judges so judges can handle more trials. There are both full-time and part-time magistrate judge positions, and these positions are assigned to the district courts according to caseload criteria (subject to funding by Congress). A full-time magistrate judge serves a term of eight years; a part-time magistrate judge's term of office is four years.^[8]

See also

• United States Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit
• Central District of Illinois
• Northern District of Illinois
• Southern District of Illinois
• Southern District of Indiana
• Eastern District of Wisconsin
• Western District of Wisconsin

External links

• Search Google News for this topic
• United States District Court, Northern District of Indiana
• Official Website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Indiana
• Judges of the Northern District of Indiana
• Northern District of Indiana

Footnotes

v • e Federal judges who have served theUnited States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana
Active judges	Chief Judge: Holly Brady  •  Theresa Springmann  •  Philip Simon  •  Gretchen Hess Lund  •  Damon Leichty  •  Cristal Brisco
Senior judges	Robert Miller (Indiana)  •  James T. Moody (Indiana)  •  Theresa Springmann  •  Joseph Van Bokkelen  •  Jon E. DeGuilio  •
Magistrate judges	John E. Martin (Indiana)  •  Susan Collins (Federal judge, Indiana)  •
Former Article III judges	Allen Sharp  •  William Lee (Indiana)  •  Michael Kanne  •  Jesse Eschbach  •  Rudy Lozano (Indiana)  •  Thomas Whitten Slick  •  George Beamer  •  Robert Grant (Indiana)  •  Phil McNagny  •  William Parkinson (Indiana)  •  Luther Swygert  •
Former Chief judges	Robert Miller (Indiana)  •  Allen Sharp  •  William Lee (Indiana)  •  Theresa Springmann  •  Jesse Eschbach  •  George Beamer  •  Robert Grant (Indiana)  •  Philip Simon  •  Luther Swygert  •