Establishing Justice in Middle America: A History of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit

Headquartered in St. Louis and serving primarily Midwestern states, the Eighth Circuit Court has ruled on cases that touch some of the most significant issues in American history, including Native American rights, school segregation, farm bankruptcies, abortion, the environment, pornography, the war on drugs, and the first successful class-action sexual-harassment lawsuit.

In Establishing Justice in Middle America, Jeffrey Brandon Morris covers its history, from its founding in 1866 through the present day. Morris also provides a panoramic view, discussing how the court has changed over time, the judges who have served on the court, and all of the court’s major cases. This work is one of the first histories of a court in the mostly regional tier of federal courts that are, judicially speaking, nearest to the Supreme Court.

Establishing Justice in Middle America reveals how, in many ways, the history of a regional court is a history of the nation itself.

Jeffrey Brandon Morris is professor of law at Touro Law Center in Long Island, New York. He is the author or editor of sixteen books, including histories of four federal courts, and is editor of the Encyclopedia of American History.

Published for the Historical Society of the United
States Courts in the Eighth Circuit.