Civil-rights litigation in the federal courts includes private cases, cases naming the United States as defendant, and employment-discrimination enforcement by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). During the 12 months ending December 31, 2024, U.S. district courts commenced 268,242 civil cases. Of those, 44,412 were classified as private civil-rights cases and 1,775 were civil-rights cases with the United States as defendant. The EEOC separately filed 111 merits suits in fiscal year 2024. These measures cover different populations and periods, so they should be read as related indicators rather than one combined total.
On this page
- National federal civil-rights filing volume
- Cases naming the United States as defendant
- What private civil-rights cases involved
- Private filings by federal circuit
- Districts with the largest private filing counts
- EEOC lawsuits and litigation outcomes
National federal civil-rights filing volume
The federal judiciary’s calendar-year count provides the broadest filing context. In the 12 months ending December 31, 2024, district courts commenced 268,242 civil cases. Cases with the United States as defendant accounted for 46,650 of those commencements, while private civil cases accounted for 221,592. These are overall civil-case categories, not civil-rights totals.
Within those categories, the same period included 1,775 U.S.-defendant civil-rights cases and 44,412 private civil-rights cases. The distinction matters: a civil-rights case with the United States as defendant is counted separately from a private civil-rights case, and neither number represents every civil-rights dispute in the country. The source table counts cases commenced during the stated 12-month period, not all cases pending or resolved during the year.
| Federal filing measure | Cases commenced | Measurement period |
|---|---|---|
| All civil cases in U.S. district courts | 268,242 | 12 months ending December 31, 2024 |
| Cases with the United States as defendant | 46,650 | 12 months ending December 31, 2024 |
| Private civil cases | 221,592 | 12 months ending December 31, 2024 |
| U.S.-defendant civil-rights cases | 1,775 | 12 months ending December 31, 2024 |
| Private civil-rights cases | 44,412 | 12 months ending December 31, 2024 |
A separate Judicial Business measure shows a related but different view. Federal-question civil-rights filings increased 10% to 40,719 in fiscal year 2024. Within that fiscal-year measure, the “other civil rights” subcategory reached 16,476 filings, up 13% from the prior year. The Judicial Business figures are fiscal-year federal-question nature-of-suit measures; they should not be added to the calendar-year C-3 counts.
Cases naming the United States as defendant
The U.S.-defendant civil-rights category totaled 1,775 cases commenced during the 12 months ending December 31, 2024. The federal-circuit distribution shows how those filings were spread across the country:
- The First Circuit recorded 51 cases.
- The Second Circuit recorded 105 cases.
- The Third Circuit recorded 148 cases.
- The Fourth Circuit recorded 140 cases.
- The Fifth Circuit recorded 166 cases.
- The Sixth Circuit recorded 97 cases.
- The Seventh Circuit recorded 87 cases.
- The Eighth Circuit recorded 77 cases.
These figures identify the number commenced in each listed circuit during the same calendar-year period. They are not outcome rates, damages totals, or counts of people represented. They also should not be interpreted as a population-adjusted ranking because the supplied court table reports filing counts rather than a rate per resident or per eligible claimant.
What private civil-rights cases involved
Private civil-rights filings were not one single type of lawsuit. In the 12 months ending December 31, 2024, the private civil-rights categories included 10,311 general habeas corpus cases, 104 death-penalty petitions, 29,560 prison-condition and civil-rights matters, and 1,194 mandamus and other matters.
The category labels describe how the federal judiciary classified the cases. They do not, by themselves, establish that a plaintiff prevailed, that a constitutional violation occurred, or that every filing concerned the same legal theory. In particular, “prison-condition and civil-rights matters” is a statistical classification, not a finding about the merits of an individual complaint.
| Private civil-rights category | Cases commenced | Measurement period |
|---|---|---|
| General habeas corpus | 10,311 | 12 months ending December 31, 2024 |
| Death-penalty petitions | 104 | 12 months ending December 31, 2024 |
| Prison-condition and civil-rights matters | 29,560 | 12 months ending December 31, 2024 |
| Mandamus and other matters | 1,194 | 12 months ending December 31, 2024 |
Together, these reported categories show that prison-condition and civil-rights matters were the largest named private category in the supplied table, followed by general habeas corpus. That comparison is limited to the categories and labels in the C-3 table; it is not a broader estimate of all civil-rights disputes, including matters resolved outside federal court.
Private filings by federal circuit
The 44,412 private civil-rights cases commenced in the 12 months ending December 31, 2024, were distributed unevenly among federal circuits. The Ninth Circuit recorded 9,308, the Eleventh Circuit recorded 6,553, and the First and Second Circuits each recorded 5,687. Other reported totals ranged from 1,978 in the Tenth Circuit to 4,645 in the Third Circuit.
The full circuit counts were 4,645 in the Third Circuit, 2,347 in the Fourth, 3,300 in the Fifth, 3,291 in the Sixth, 3,750 in the Seventh, 2,001 in the Eighth, 1,978 in the Tenth, and 6,553 in the Eleventh. The Ninth Circuit’s count was 9,308. The First and Second Circuits each recorded 5,687.
| Federal circuit | Private civil-rights cases commenced |
|---|---|
| First | 5,687 |
| Second | 5,687 |
| Third | 4,645 |
| Fourth | 2,347 |
| Fifth | 3,300 |
| Sixth | 3,291 |
| Seventh | 3,750 |
| Eighth | 2,001 |
| Ninth | 9,308 |
| Tenth | 1,978 |
| Eleventh | 6,553 |
The circuit totals are filing counts for the specified period. They do not show why filing volume differed, whether cases were similar in subject, or how many were ultimately successful. No population-adjusted rate or causal explanation is supplied by these figures.
Districts with the largest private filing counts
At the district level, the Central District of California recorded 4,887 private civil-rights cases commenced during the 12 months ending December 31, 2024. The Southern District of New York recorded 3,019, followed by the Southern District of Florida with 2,209. The Northern District of Illinois recorded 1,825, and the Eastern District of Pennsylvania recorded 1,820.
Additional reported concentrations included 1,354 cases in the District of New Jersey and 1,213 in the Northern District of Georgia. These numbers describe where cases were commenced in the federal district-court system. They are not measures of the prevalence of discrimination or other civil-rights violations in those places, and they are not rates per population.
EEOC lawsuits and litigation outcomes
The EEOC’s fiscal-year 2024 litigation report measures the agency’s enforcement activity, not all private civil-rights lawsuits. The agency filed 111 merits suits: 110 were employment-discrimination lawsuits and one challenged a breach of a conciliation agreement. Among the merits suits, 76 sought relief for individuals, 22 were non-systemic suits involving multiple victims, and 13 were systemic merits suits. The EEOC reported that 79 merits suits advanced Strategic Enforcement Plan priorities.
The fiscal-year filing activity also included the EEOC’s first five Pregnant Workers Fairness Act lawsuits, 13 actions to enforce subpoenas issued during charge investigations, and 18 suits for non-compliance with mandatory EEO-1 Component 1 reporting. These counts are actions filed by the agency and should not be merged with district-court private filing counts.
The EEOC resolved 132 merits lawsuits in fiscal year 2024. Its litigation resolutions recovered more than $40 million for 4,304 individuals. The agency resolved 16 systemic cases, obtaining just over $23.9 million and covering 4,074 victims of systemic discrimination. The EEOC reported a favorable result in 97% of all district-court resolutions and a 100% success rate in systemic case resolutions.
Those percentages are the EEOC’s reported outcome measures for its own fiscal-year 2024 resolutions. They are not a success rate for all civil-rights lawsuits, all employment cases, or all plaintiffs. Likewise, the recovered-dollar figures concern EEOC litigation resolutions and do not represent total civil-rights damages nationwide.
Beyond lawsuits, the EEOC filed 39 amicus briefs in federal appellate and district courts during fiscal year 2024. More than 71% of EEOC private-sector mediations were successfully resolved, producing $243.2 million in benefits for charging parties. EEOC charges, mediations, administrative resolutions, lawsuits, and court outcomes are different populations, so the mediation figures cannot be added to the lawsuit-resolution figures.
Source: EEOC Publishes Annual Performance and General Counsel Reports for Fiscal Year 2024.