Definition
"Every court of the United States" is a term of art used in federal statutory and procedural law to designate the full range of courts established by Congress under Article III of the Constitution and, in certain contexts, courts created under Article I (legislative courts). The phrase appears most prominently in the Rules Enabling Act and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, where it functions as a scope clause defining which tribunals are governed by federal procedural rules and which possess particular powers.
The term does not mean every court that happens to sit within the territorial boundaries of the United States. It refers specifically to courts of the United States federal system — those created by or under the authority of the federal government — as distinguished from state courts, territorial courts of uncertain status, and foreign tribunals.
In practice, the phrase has been interpreted to include:
1. The Supreme Court of the United States.
2. Courts of appeals established under 28 U.S.C. § 41.
3. District courts of the United States established under 28 U.S.C. § 132.
4. The Court of International Trade and other specialized Article III tribunals.
Whether Article I courts — such as the former Court of Claims in its earlier incarnation, bankruptcy courts, or magistrate judges acting independently — fall within the phrase depends on context. Courts have generally held that the phrase tracks Article III courts unless Congress expressly extends a rule or power to legislative courts by separate provision.
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Common Confusion
"Every court of the United States" is frequently confused with "every court in the United States." The preposition carries legal weight. A state court is a court in the United States but is never a court of the United States. Federal procedural rules, contempt powers, and certain statutory authorizations that attach to "every court of the United States" do not by their own force extend to state tribunals. Researchers encountering this phrase in older federal statutes must resist reading it as a universal grant of national applicability.
The phrase is also sometimes confused with "any court of competent jurisdiction," which is a broader and functionally different formulation that may reach state courts depending on context.
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Why It Matters in Research
The phrase is a jurisdictional and structural tripwire in federal statutory research. Its meaning is not self-defining, and its scope has been contested and refined across more than a century of federal practice.
First, the phrase appears in 28 U.S.C. § 1651 (the All Writs Act), which authorizes "all courts established by Act of Congress" to issue writs. Researchers working on extraordinary writ practice — mandamus, prohibition, coram nobis — must trace how courts have interpreted the relationship between "every court of the United States" in older formulations and the current statutory language.
Second, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure state in Rule 1 that they govern procedure in "all civil actions and proceedings in the United States district courts." Earlier drafts and predecessor instruments used the "every court of the United States" formulation. Researchers working with pre-1938 federal procedure will encounter the phrase in the Conformity Acts and their successors, where it carried a different and more contested scope.
Third, in the context of the federal contempt power, statutes have long authorized "every court of the United States" to punish contempts. Whether this reached territorial courts, the District of Columbia courts, or administrative tribunals acting in a quasi-judicial capacity generated persistent litigation. Historical sources are unreliable guides here — Bouvier's era predates the full elaboration of the Article I/Article III distinction that modern courts treat as foundational.
Fourth, the phrase intersects with questions about the status of courts in U.S. territories and possessions. Courts in Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands have at various times been classified as legislative courts rather than constitutional courts, which affected whether they fell within the phrase's scope under particular statutes.
Corpus researchers should expect inconsistency across time periods. Pre-1911 materials (before the Judicial Code reorganization) use the phrase in statutory environments that have since been substantially restructured. Post-1948 materials reflect the current Title 28 codification, which does not always preserve the exact phrasing of earlier statutes even when the substantive rule carries forward.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier's Law Dictionary does not provide a direct entry for "every court of the United States" as a standalone term. Bouvier instead approaches the federal judiciary through related entries — Supreme Court of the United States, Court of Record, Local Court, Municipal Court, and Last Resort — each of which treats federal court identity from a different angle.
This gap is itself instructive. Bouvier's structural approach reflects an era when the phrase was understood as a plain descriptive aggregate rather than a term requiring independent definition. The analytical need to define "every court of the United States" as a term of art sharpened later, as Congress multiplied Article I tribunals and as procedural codification required precise scope statements.
Bouvier's entry for Supreme Court of the United States correctly identifies that court as the apex of the federal system and acknowledges congressional power to establish inferior courts, but does not grapple with the internal taxonomy that distinguishes Article III courts from legislative courts — a distinction that had not yet achieved the doctrinal clarity it carries today.
Researchers relying solely on Bouvier for the contours of federal court identity will find the entries useful for understanding the hierarchical structure of the federal judiciary as it existed in the nineteenth century, but will need to supplement heavily with post-1911 sources for any statutory interpretation work.
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Jurisdictional Note
The phrase "every court of the United States" is a creature of federal law and has no direct state-law analog. State courts apply their own structural terminology. However, when a federal statute extends a right, remedy, or procedure to "every court of the United States," state courts asked to apply that statute as a matter of concurrent jurisdiction have occasionally disputed whether they are encompassed — they are not, under standard interpretation, but the argument surfaces with enough regularity to warrant attention in research involving concurrent jurisdiction.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Federal Courts — for the constitutional and statutory framework establishing the courts that fall within this phrase.
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Jurisdiction of Federal Courts — for how the scope of "every court of the United States" operates as a limiting or enabling clause in jurisdictional grants.
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Article I Courts — for the contested boundary cases involving legislative tribunals and the phrase's reach.
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