U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit

The United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit is the court overseeing the Federal district courts in several of the plains and mountain states: Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming. The court was organized in 1929, by act of Congress, removing the six states from the older United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. The court is based in Denver, Colorado. It has 12 active judges and nine senior judges. The court is headed by Chief Judge Robert H. Henry. Henry has announced his resignation effective June 30, 2010.

A number of prominent federal court cases have been handled by the Tenth Circuit. Among these is Brown v. Board of Education (1954 and 1955), the Supreme Court's most important education decision in the twentieth century. Appeals from the Oklahoma City bombing trials affirmed the convictions of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols for domestic terrorism.