In 1891, Congress, through the Evarts Act,¹ created circuit courts of appeals in each of the existing nine circuits² to share appellate jurisdiction with the Supreme Court, and to abolish the appellate jurisdiction of the old circuit courts.³ The circuit court of appeal, with its name change in 1948 to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit,⁴ has served as intermediate appellate court for this circuit continuously since the enactment of the 1891 Act.

Cincinnati is designated by statute as the location for holding sessions of the court.⁵ The Queen City is centrally located and conveniently accessible from all points in the circuit. Only in rare instances have sessions of the court been held elsewhere.

For the first thirty-eight years of its history, when dockets were not so heavy, the court consisted of three judges. A fourth was added in 1929,⁶ a fifth in 1938⁷ and a sixth in 1940.⁸ As a result of the ever increasing pressures created by the desegregation litigation explosion experienced in the 1960s, Congress added two additional judges to the court in 1966⁹ and another in 1968.¹⁰ Two more judges were added in 1978.¹¹ The court remained at eleven until Congress added four more judgeships in the Bankruptcy Amendments & Federal Judiciary Act of 1984.¹² The Judicial Improvements Act of 1990 added another judgeship to bring the complement to sixteen.¹³

At this time there are no vacancies on the Sixth Circuit. The sixteen active circuit judges are Danny J. Boggs, Chief Judge,¹⁴ of Louisville, Kentucky; Boyce F. Martin, Jr. of Louisville, Kentucky; Alice M. Batchelder of Medina, Ohio; Martha Craig Daughtrey of Nashville, Tennessee; Karen Nelson Moore of Cleveland, Ohio; Ransey Guy Cole, Jr. of Columbus, Ohio; Eric L. Clay of Detroit, Michigan; Ronald L. Gilman of Memphis, Tennessee; Julia Smith Gibbons of Memphis, Tennessee; John M. Rogers of Lexington, Kentucky; Jeffrey S. Sutton of Columbus, Ohio; Deborah L. Cook of Akron, Ohio; David W. McKeague of Lansing, Michigan, Richard Allen Griffin of Traverse City, Michigan, Raymond M. Kethledge of Troy, Michigan, and Helene White of Deteroit Michigan. The court is also fortunate to have eight experienced senior judges, all of whom continue to carry a substantial caseload: Damon J. Keith of Detroit, Michigan; Gilbert S. Merritt, Jr. of Nashville, Tennessee; Cornelia G. Kennedy of Detroit, Michigan; Ralph B. Guy, Jr. of Ann Arbor, Michigan, James L. Ryan of Detroit, Michigan; Alan E. Norris of Columbus, Ohio, Richard F. Suhrheinrich of Lansing, Michigan and Eugene E. Siler, Jr. of London, Kentucky.