For over two centuries, the courts of the United States in Indiana have been called upon
to resolve the most significant legal, political, and social problems of the day. Before becoming
a state, Indiana was part of the “Northwest Territory”, consisting of the land belonging to the
United States which lay northwest of the Ohio River, including the present states of Ohio,
Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin. The judicial power of the national government was
first established in this territory by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 which provided for a
Territorial Court consisting of three federal judges. In 1800, Congress separated most of the
territory west of the present state of Ohio and called it the “Indiana Territory”. While the
judicial administration of this new territory initially continued on the same plan of three judges
as under the Northwest Ordinance, increases in population and commerce quickly led to
enhancement of the judiciary. In 1801, lower courts, below the three-judge territorial court, were
created. In 1805, the territorial courts were given equity jurisdiction and, for the first time,
appeals were allowed to the Supreme Court from the territorial court. In 1802, Ohio was
admitted as a state and the present eastern border of Indiana was established. In 1805, the
Michigan Territory was split off from the Indiana Territory, followed by the Illinois Territory in
1809. Finally, in 1816, Indiana was admitted as the nineteenth state and the federal District
Court was established three months later.
The judicial District of Indiana was created on March 3, 1817 and Benjamin Parke was
appointed as the first district judge three days later. The Court first met in Corydon on May 5,
1817. It moved to Indianapolis in January 1825 along with the move of the state government.
One district judge served the entire state of Indiana until 1928 when Congress split the District
of Indiana into the Southern District and Northern District. One judge continued to serve the
judicial needs of the Southern District until 1954. Today, Congress has authorized five full-time
district judges for the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana to conduct
the judicial business of the United States in the southern part of Indiana.
Until 1912, two federal courts sat in the District of Indiana: the District Court, described
above, and the Circuit Court. Beginning with the passage of the first Judiciary Act in 1789, each
justice of the United States Supreme Court was assigned to a Circuit consisting of a regional
group of states and he was required to “ride the circuit” twice a year, holding a session of the
Circuit Court in each district of his assigned Circuit. The Circuit Courts were the trial courts for
most federal crimes, suits between citizens of different states, and civil suits brought by the
United States. The circuit courts also heard appeals over most civil suits brought in the district
courts. At that time, there were no courts of appeals between the districts and the Supreme
Court. As the workload of the Supreme Court and the Circuit Courts increased over time, the
Supreme Court justices found it increasingly difficult to meet their twice-yearly obligations as
circuit justices, which often resulted in justices missing sessions of court and cases being held
over to successive terms until the justice was able to reach the district. To provide some relief,
Congress provided that the Circuit Court for each district would consist of both the visiting
circuit justice and the resident district judge, but either alone could conduct the business of the
Circuit Court. Thus, court could be held even if the circuit justice was absent. Later, Congress
expanded the Circuit bench again to three judges, creating separate circuit judges who had no
permanent seat, but continually rode an assigned Circuit. In 1891, Congress created the current
Courts of Appeals for each circuit and transferred the appellate jurisdiction of the Circuit Courts,
as well as the circuit judges, to the new courts, but continued the trial jurisdiction of the Circuit
Courts. Until their eventual abolition in 1912, the Circuit Court regularly brought justices of the
United States Supreme Court to Indiana as judges and as representatives of the national
government, which had an important impact on the community, especially on the bench and bar.
From its earliest days, the District Court has made its mark on the nation’s judicial
landscape. In 1818, Judge Benjamin Parke, a political ally of former territorial governor (and
later President) William Henry Harrison, upheld the constitutionality of the federal statute
permitting the return of fugitive slaves to the states from which they had fled. In 1862, Judge
Caleb Blood Smith, who as President Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of the Interior was the first
cabinet secretary from Indiana, presided over the “Morgan County War” trials, sparked by a
band of southern Indiana citizens firing on union cavalry troops who were attempting to arrest
Union army deserters. District Judge David McDonald and Circuit Justice David Davis heard
the Civil War-era case of Ex parte Milligan and sent it on to the Supreme Court where, in 1866,
Justice Davis declared the decision of the Supreme Court that civilian citizens may not be tried
by military courts when the civil courts are open and available. In the mid-1920s, the Court
presided over a series of Prohibition-era prosecutions, including the “Jack Daniels Case”, which
implicated a revenue collector from Missouri in a criminal scheme that siphoned 30,000 gallons
of whiskey from nearly 900 barrels and replaced the spirits with water.
The District Court bench, whose members have included former Indiana Supreme Court
justices, former members of Indiana’s General Assembly, and a former member of the United
States House of Representatives, was an all-male institution until President Ronald Reagan
appointed the first female judge, Sarah Evans Barker, in 1984. The present Court has addressed
such complex and important public issues as busing, obscenity, school prayer, police brutality,
prison conditions, voting rights, government corruption, ownership of international art
antiquities, and the right of a child with AIDS to attend public school, in addition to many highly
significant private lawsuits with national and international implications.
U.S. District Court, Southern District of Indiana ▪ Updated 04/27/2007