U.S. District Courts

A federal trial court is known as a U.S. District Court and there are several assigned to each of the states. Larger states are divided into districts, such as the Northern or Southern Districts of Texas. Each district may have several district courts.

U.S. District Courts handle civil and criminal cases that involve federal laws (such as kidnapping offenses), the U.S. Constitution (such as discrimination in employment because of race) and civil cases where the parties are residents of different states.