Court Divisions | The History of the District
Court Divisions
The
Southern District of Texas comprises seven U.S. District Court divisions
with federal district courts in Houston, Galveston, Victoria, Corpus Christi,
Brownsville, McAllen and Laredo. The United States Attorney's office,
headquartered in Houston, has five additional branch offices in Corpus Christi, Brownsville, McAllen, Laredo, and Victoria to staff all seven
divisions.
Houston
Division
includes the counties of Austin, Brazos, Colorado, Fayette, Fort Bend,
Grimes, Harris, Madison, Montgomery, San Jacinto, Walker, Waller, and
Wharton.
Galveston Division includes the counties of Brazoria, Chambers, Galveston, and Matagorda.
Laredo Division includes
the counties of Jim Hogg, La Salle, McMullen, Webb, and Zapata.
Brownsville Division
includes the counties of Cameron and Willacy.
McAllen
Division includes the counties of Hidalgo and Starr.
Corpus
Christi Division includes the counties of Aransas, Bee, Brooks, Duval,
Jim Wells, Kenedy, Kleburg, Live Oak, Nueces, and San Patricio.
Victoria Division includes the counties of Calhoun, DeWitt, Goliad,
Jackson, Lavaca, Refugio, and Victoria.
The History of the District
"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the State of Texas is divided into four judicial districts, which shall be called the northern, the eastern, the southern and the western judicial districts of the State of Texas."
With these words the 57th Congress of the United States of America created the Southern Judicial District of Texas in 1902.
Texas was admitted to the United States in 1845 and was originally considered one judicial district under the leadership of Judge John C. Watrous. The court was also granted circuit court powers meaning appeals went straight to the U. S. Supreme Court. In 1857, congress created the Eastern and Western District of Texas and appointed Thomas Duval to be the judge of the Western District. Texas continued to grow, and in 1879, congress formed the Northern District. As the railroads continued to expand and fuel the Texas economy, congress created the Southern District on July 1, 1902 appointing Waller T. Burns to the bench as the district's first judge.
As per the act of congress that created the four districts in Texas, the U. S. Attorney for the former Eastern District, Marcus C. McLemore, was reassigned to the same position in the new Southern District. President Theodore Roosevelt then appointed a new U. S. Attorney for the altered Eastern District. In 1906, President Roosevelt named Lodowick "Lock" McDaniel of Grimes County, Texas to be the first man appointed as the United States Attorney for the Southern Judicial District of Texas.
Originally, the Southern District covered 36 counties. The court and the U. S. Attorney rotated between Galveston, Laredo, Brownsville and Houston which was a new seat for the court. Over the years divisions were added, counties were transferred and divided, and more judges and U. S. Attorney's offices were opened. Currently, the Southern District consists of 6 divisions covering 43 counties with 150 attorneys on staff.