United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit

The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, cited as the 11th Circuit, is the federal appellate court that reviews decisions of the nine federal district courts in Alabama, Florida and Georgia, with a Middle, Northern and Southern District in each state. It sits in the Elbert P. Tuttle U.S. Court of Appeals Building in Atlanta, Georgia, a building named for the Fifth Circuit chief judge whose rulings in the 1960s advanced the civil rights of African Americans. The court came into being on October 1, 1981, when the old Fifth Circuit was divided after Congress passed the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Reorganization Act in 1980; twelve judges left the Fifth to staff it. Because of that origin, Fifth Circuit decisions issued before the split remain binding precedent in the Eleventh Circuit. It is one of the thirteen United States courts of appeals and, like its sister circuits, hears most appeals in three judge panels, reserving en banc review by all active judges for cases of wide significance.