Skip to content

Title 28 — Judiciary and Judicial Procedure

Part I · Chapter 5 — District Courts

§ 139. Times for holding regular sessions

Statutory text

The times for commencing regular sessions of the district court for transacting judicial business at the places fixed by this chapter shall be determined by the rules or orders of the court. Such rules or orders may provide that at one or more of such places the court shall be in continuous session for such purposes on all business days throughout the year. At other places a session of the court shall continue for such purposes until terminated by order of final adjournment or by commencement of the next regular session at the same place.

Legislative history

Reconstructed from this section’s Code source credit and amendment notes, resolved against the local Statutes at Large. Editorial notes are evidence, not the law that made the change.

  1. Title 28, United States Code, section —

    Pub. L. 80–646 · 62 Stat. 869

    Enacted · 28 U.S.C. § 139

    June 25, 1948, ch. 646, 62 Stat. 897

    Source evidence

    Code source credit
    June 25, 1948, ch. 646, 62 Stat. 897

  2. Pub. L. 88–139 § 1 · 77 Stat. 248

    Substituted · 28 U.S.C. § 139

    Pub. L. 88–139 substituted provisions requiring the times for commencing regular sessions of the district court to be determined by the rules or orders of the court, authorizing such rules or orders to provide that at one or more of the places fixed by this chapter, the court shall be in continuous session on all business days throughout the year, and that at other places, a session continues until terminated by order of final adjournment or by commencement of the next regular session at the same place, for provisions that a term continues until terminated by order of final adjournment or by commencement of the next term at the same place, in the text, and “Times for holding regular sessions” for “Term continued until terminated” in section catchline

    Source evidence

    Code amendment note
    Pub. L. 88–139 substituted provisions requiring the times for commencing regular sessions of the district court to be determined by the rules or orders of the court, authorizing such rules or orders to provide that at one or more of the places fixed by this chapter, the court shall be in continuous session on all business days throughout the year, and that at other places, a session continues until terminated by order of final adjournment or by commencement of the next regular session at the same place, for provisions that a term continues until terminated by order of final adjournment or by commencement of the next term at the same place, in the text, and “Times for holding regular sessions” for “Term continued until terminated” in section catchline.

0 of 2 references resolved to an enrolled provision · 2 partial

Notes

Historical and Revision Notes

The purpose of this section is to remove all doubt as to whether the mere beginning of a new term at one place ends a prior term begun at another place. As revised, it conforms to a uniform course of judicial decisions. See U.S. v. Perlstein, 39 F.Supp. 965, 968 (D.C.N.J. 1941), and cases cited.

Editorial Notes

Amendments

1963—Pub. L. 88–139 substituted provisions requiring the times for commencing regular sessions of the district court to be determined by the rules or orders of the court, authorizing such rules or orders to provide that at one or more of the places fixed by this chapter, the court shall be in continuous session on all business days throughout the year, and that at other places, a session continues until terminated by order of final adjournment or by commencement of the next regular session at the same place, for provisions that a term continues until terminated by order of final adjournment or by commencement of the next term at the same place, in the text, and “Times for holding regular sessions” for “Term continued until terminated” in section catchline.

Credits

1948–1963 · 2 acts
  1. 1948June 25, 1948, ch. 646, 62 Stat. 897
  2. 1963Pub. L. 88–139, § 1, , 77 Stat. 248.
Show as published

(June 25, 1948, ch. 646, 62 Stat. 897; Pub. L. 88–139, § 1, , 77 Stat. 248.)

Parsed from the official OLRC USLM XML in data/usc_all/usc28.xml · release point 119-108 · OLRC build 2026-04-17

USLM identifier /us/usc/t28/s139