United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit

The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, cited in case reports as 1st Cir., is a federal appellate court that hears appeals from the federal district courts of Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Puerto Rico and Rhode Island. It therefore covers most of New England together with the territory of Puerto Rico. The court is based at the John Joseph Moakley Federal Courthouse in Boston, Massachusetts, where it usually sits for one week in most months of the year, taking a summer break in July or August. It also sits for a week each March and November at the Jose V. Toledo Federal Building and United States Courthouse in Old San Juan, and occasionally at other places in the circuit. With six active judgeships it is the smallest of the thirteen United States courts of appeals. Retired Supreme Court justices have sat with it by designation, among them David Souter after 2009 and Stephen Breyer from 2025.