United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
United States Appellate Court reviewing district court cases from Georgia, Alabama, and Florida
The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit (in case citations, 11th Cir.) is a federal appellate court over the following U.S. district courts:
Middle District of Alabama
Northern District of Alabama
Southern District of Alabama
Middle District of Florida
Northern District of Florida
Southern District of Florida
Middle District of Georgia
Northern District of Georgia
Southern District of Georgia
These districts were originally part of the Fifth Circuit, but were split off to form the Eleventh Circuit on October 1, 1981. For this reason, Fifth Circuit decisions from before this split are considered binding precedent in the Eleventh Circuit.
The court is based at the Elbert P. Tuttle U.S. Court of Appeals Building in Atlanta, Georgia. The building is named for Elbert Tuttle, who served as Chief Judge of the Fifth Circuit in the 1960s and was known for issuing decisions which advanced the civil rights of African-Americans.
The Eleventh Circuit is one of the 13 United States courts of appeals.
Creation of the Eleventh Circuit
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals was created in 1981. The decision to create a new Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals was contentious, with the debate over the reorganization of the Fifth Circuit lasting nearly two decades. The question of creating a new circuit first arose in the early 1960s as the Southern states contained within the Fifth Circuit underwent major changes including rapid population growth and regional industrialization and specialization. Both of these factors led to an increase in the Fifth Circuit's caseload, necessitating the addition of more judges to the Court.During this time, the Fifth Circuit also became known for their jurisprudence on cases pertaining to desegregation and voting rights for African Americans. This led to opposition from groups who believed the Fifth Circuit judges were inappropriately utilising judicial activism to advance civil rights.
The public source identifies “United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit” as united States Appellate Court reviewing district court cases from Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around United, States and Court.
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Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q250446. The Library of Congress control number is n84097867. Authority coordinates are 33.756, -84.390. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1981.
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This entry incorporates text from “United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.