Sandra Day O'Connor United States Courthouse

The courthouse is a major federal judicial facility in downtown Phoenix. It is located at 401 West Washington Street, near other civic and governmental buildings in the city center. The building houses proceedings of the United States District Court for the District of Arizona, whose Phoenix division handles federal civil and criminal cases arising within the district. The court operates within the federal judiciary administered by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts.¹

Its location reflects the concentration of federal justice functions in central Phoenix. Courtrooms and chambers are accompanied by spaces for clerks, attorneys, jurors, court security, and public access. The courthouse is not the seat of the Supreme Court; its name is commemorative, while its daily work concerns trial-level federal jurisdiction in Arizona.

Congress gave the Phoenix federal courthouse its present name to honor Sandra Day O'Connor. The designation recognized her Arizona career and her historic service as the first woman justice of the Supreme Court, to which President Ronald Reagan appointed her in 1981.² The naming legislation was enacted as Public Law 108-263 in 2004.³

Before joining the Supreme Court, O'Connor had served as Arizona's assistant attorney general, a state senator, a Maricopa County superior-court judge, and a judge on the Arizona Court of Appeals. Those roles connected the courthouse's name to the state's legal institutions rather than merely to her later national prominence. O'Connor retired from the Supreme Court in 2006 and died in 2023.²

The courthouse supports the constitutional and statutory work of a United States district court. District courts are the federal judiciary's principal trial courts: they receive evidence, conduct jury and bench trials, decide motions, and enter judgments in cases within federal jurisdiction.⁴

In Phoenix, the facility serves a broad docket shaped by Arizona's geography and population. Matters may include federal crimes, immigration-related prosecutions, bankruptcy-related litigation when handled in the appropriate court, constitutional claims, disputes involving federal law, and cases between parties meeting federal jurisdictional requirements. The courthouse also accommodates the United States Attorney's Office, defense counsel, witnesses, jurors, probation personnel, and members of the public, although these offices and functions are institutionally distinct from the court itself.¹

The courthouse's name can obscure an important institutional distinction: it honors a Supreme Court justice, but the building primarily serves a trial court. O'Connor never sat there as a judge; her Arizona judicial service preceded her appointment to the nation's highest court.²

Federal courthouses are also working security environments rather than ordinary public buildings. Entry procedures, prohibited items, courtroom access, and photography rules can vary according to court orders and security requirements. Proceedings may be open to the public, but access is subject to courtroom capacity, judicial directives, and security screening. The building therefore functions simultaneously as a civic symbol and as controlled infrastructure for adjudication. Its commemorative identity also links local Arizona legal history with the national history of women's advancement in the American judiciary.

United States district court

A federal trial court with jurisdiction over civil and criminal matters assigned to the federal judiciary.

Federal jurisdiction

The legal authority of a federal court to hear a particular case, based on the Constitution and federal statutes.

Sandra Day O'Connor

An Arizona jurist and the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States, serving from 1981 to 2006.

Public Law

A law enacted by Congress and signed or otherwise approved through the federal legislative process, identified by a numbered designation.