District Court of Guam Fanhusgayan Destriton Guåhån (Chamorro)
(D. Guam)
Location	United States Courthouse (Hagåtña, Guam)
Appeals to	Ninth Circuit
Established	1950
Authority	Article IV tribunal
Created by	Guam Organic Act of 1950 48 U.S.C. §§ 1424–1424c
Composition method	Presidential nomination withSenateadvice and consent
Judges	1
Judge term length	10 years (and until successor is chosen and qualified)
Chief Judge	Frances Tydingco-Gatewood
Officers of the court
U.S. Attorney	Shawn N. Anderson
U.S. Marshal	Fernando L. G. Sablan
www.gud.uscourts.gov

TheDistrict Court of Guam^[1] (in case citations,D. Guam) is aUnited States territorial court with jurisdiction over theUnited States territory ofGuam. It sits in the capital,Hagåtña. Appeals of the court's decisions are taken to theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. It is not anArticle III court, and therefore its judges do not havelife tenure, but are appointed to ten-year terms.^[2]

The District Court of Guam was established in 1950 by theGuam Organic Act to have the same jurisdiction as aUnited States district court.^[1] Under Section 22(a) of the Guam Organic Act, the Court was granted:

• in all causes arising under the laws of the United States, the jurisdiction of adistrict court of the United States as such court is defined in section 451 of title 28, United States Code;
• original jurisdiction in all other causes in Guam, jurisdiction over which has not been transferred by the legislature to other court or courts established by it, and;
• such appellate jurisdiction as the legislature may determine.

In 1951, theGuam Legislature created Commissioners' Courts, the Police Court, and the Island Court, decisions from which were appealable to the District Court. In 1974, the Legislature consolidated these courts into the Guam Superior Court. The legislature also created aGuam Supreme Court to hear appeals from the Superior Court. However, the Ninth Circuit found in 1976 that the appellate jurisdiction of the District Court could not be transferred without authorization byCongress, and the Supreme Court of the United States upheld this ruling in a 5–4 decision in 1977. JusticeThurgood Marshall wrote the dissenting opinion, in which he argued that Congress had plainly authorized the enactment of the challenged legislation.^[3] Further legislation divested the District Court's appellate jurisdiction over local matters in 1994.^[4]

The District Court was housed in theGuam Congress Building from 1950 to 1968, in the Courthouse of Guam from 1968 to 1978, in the Pacific News Building from 1978 to 2000, and since then in the United States Courthouse Building.^[4]

As of August 8, 2006^[update]:

• Courts of the United States
• List of current United States district judges
• List of United States federal courthouses in Guam
• Politics of Guam
• Supreme Court of Guam
• United States Attorney for the Districts of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands
• District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands

• District Court of Guam

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