District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands

The District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands, cited as D. N. Mar. I. in case citations, is a federal territorial court whose jurisdiction comprises the United States-affiliated Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Congress established it in 1977 under the international agreement between the United States and the Commonwealth that brought the islands under United States sovereignty, and it began hearing cases in January 1978. The court regularly sits in Saipan but may sit elsewhere in the islands. It has the same jurisdiction as United States district courts, including diversity and bankruptcy jurisdiction, but it is not an Article III court, so its judge is appointed for a ten-year term instead of for life, and appeals go to the Ninth Circuit. Its first district judge was Alfred Laureta, who served from 1978 until 1988.