Patterson, Sr., former Attorney General Michael B. Those who have served as judges of the Court include Justice Sonia Sotomayor, former Secretary of War Robert P. The District and its successor, the Southern District of New York, have sat continuously in New York, NY, since 1789. It was the first court to sit under the new United States Constitution, preceding the United States Supreme Court by a few months. The District of New York held its first session on the first Tuesday of November 1789 at the Old Royal Exchange in lower Manhattan presided over by Judge James Duane, who was appointed by President Washington.
The Court hears cases in Manhattan, White Plains, and Poughkeepsie, New York. The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York encompasses the counties of New York, Bronx, Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, Orange, Dutchess, and Sullivan and draws jurors from those counties.
