Jury mandarin; jery man therin, gerrymandering: "Jerry mend a ring."
(This is a re-post of a question that I originally posted to /r/AskLawyers. I am re-posting here because I suspect that it's really a history question.)
I'm a lawyer myself, but not a litigator. I have a few questions about the organization of United States District Courts, and how they came to be organized as they presently are.
Why do some states with multiple district courts call have one for the "Middle District" (such as Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida), but other states have one for the "Central District" (such as California and Illinois)?
The number of district courts per state does not predictably correspond to the state's population. There are three states that each have four geographic federal districts: California, New York and Texas - which stands to reason, those three states are among the top four in terms of population. But the states that have three geographic federal districts include both large-population states (Florida, Pennsylvania, Illinois) but also some relatively low-population states (Louisiana and Oklahoma). Similarly, the states that consist of a single unitary federal district include both very low-population states (Wyoming, Alaska, Delaware) but also some states with fairly high populations (New Jersey, Arizona, Massachusetts and Maryland).
I would assume that there is a historical reason why the U.S. District Courts are organized and distributed in this way. Does anyone know the story?
