# United States Courts of Appeals The **U.S. Courts of Appeals** are the intermediate appellate tier of the federal judiciary — **13 circuits**: 11 numbered regional circuits, the District of Columbia Circuit, and the Federal Circuit (which hears patent, trade, and certain claims cases nationwide). They hear appeals from the [[United States District Courts]], normally in three-judge panels, with occasional en banc review by the full circuit. Because the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] grants certiorari in only ~60–70 cases a year out of thousands of petitions, the circuit courts are where the overwhelming majority of federal law is **finally and authoritatively settled** for the regions they cover. For the KB, that finality is exactly why the circuit courts are the densest prize of the conservative legal movement. A controlling majority on a circuit shapes the law for an entire multi-state region for a generation, and does so largely beyond the Supreme Court's practical reach. The four-decade project to remake the federal bench has therefore been at least as focused on circuit seats as on the marquee Supreme Court vacancies. ## Structure - **11 numbered circuits** (First through Eleventh) — regional, each covering several states. - **D.C. Circuit** — covers the District of Columbia but, crucially, reviews most challenges to federal agency action; long considered the second-most-important court in the country and a frequent Supreme Court feeder. - **Federal Circuit** — nationwide jurisdiction over patents, international trade, veterans' claims, and government-contract disputes. ## The capture lens The circuit courts are the operational core of the [[Federalist Society]] judicial pipeline, vetted and championed through the network associated with [[Leonard Leo]] and confirmed via the [[Senate Judiciary Committee]]. The patterns the KB tracks: - **Confirmation throughput** — the systematic filling of circuit vacancies with young, movement-credentialed judges who will serve for decades. - **The D.C. Circuit and the administrative state** — because it reviews agency action, the D.C. Circuit is where the [[Administrative State]] and [[Unitary Executive Theory]] fights are largely decided before reaching the Supreme Court. - **Circuit splits as a cert engine** — disagreements among circuits are a primary path by which issues reach a friendly Supreme Court. - **En banc maneuvering** — the politics of full-court review when a panel's composition produces an unwelcome result. ## See Also - [[Supreme Court of the United States]] - [[United States District Courts]] - [[Judiciary]] - [[Federalist Society]] - [[Leonard Leo]] - [[Administrative State]]