Civil Rights Civil Filings for August 2025
Table 1. Civil Rights Civil Filings
Number Latest Month 1,828 Percent Change from previous month -2.4% Percent Change from 1 year ago 10.2% Percent Change from 5 years ago 11.6% The latest available data from the federal courts show that during August 2025 the government reported 1,828 new civil rights civil filings. According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), this number is down 2.4% over the previous month when the number of civil filings of this type totaled 1,873.
The comparisons of the number of civil filings for civil rights-related suits are based on case-by-case court records which were compiled and analyzed by TRAC (see Table 1).
When monthly 2025 civil filings of this type are compared with those of the same period in the previous year, their number was up (10.2%). Civil filings for August 2025 are higher than they were for the same period five years ago. Overall, the data show that civil filings of this type are up 11.6% from levels reported in August 2020.
Figure 1. Civil Rights Civil Filings Over the Last Five Years
The long term trend in civil rights civil filings for these matters going back five years is shown more clearly in Figure 1. The vertical bars in Figure 1 represent the number of civil rights civil filings of this type recorded each month. The superimposed line on the bars plots the six-month moving average so that natural fluctuations are smoothed out. One-year and five-year change comparisons are based upon the moving averages.
Jurisdiction
Within limits set by Congress and the Constitution, the federal district courts have jurisdiction to hear cases falling under any one of several categories. The single largest number of civil filings of these matters during August 2025 was under the classification "Federal Question", accounting for 96.8% of civil filings.
The second largest number of matters was civil filings under the jurisdiction category of "U.S. Government Defendant" (3.2%) .
Top Ranked Judicial Districts
Relative to population, the volume of civil matters of this type filed in federal district courts during August 2025 was 5.5 per every million persons in the United States. One year ago the relative number of filings was 4.8. Understandably, there is great variation in the per capita number of civil rights civil filings in each of the nation's ninety-four federal judicial districts.
Table 2. Top Ten Districts (per one million people)
Judicial District Percapita Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago Virg, W 30.9 68 1 1 3 More D. C. 23.6 16 2 30 1 More Cal, E 19.8 165 3 3 5 More N. Y., N 18.3 62 4 25 34 More Nevada 18.2 58 5 5 8 More Ind, S 17.8 75 6 68 87 More Ind, N 17.4 46 7 2 7 More Ken, W 15.3 35 8 48 13 More S Car 13.4 72 9 31 20 More Ga, M 12.9 27 10 32 15 More
The Western District of Virginia — with 30.9 civil filings as compared with 5.5 civil filings per one million people in the United States — was the most active during August 2025. The Western District of Virginia was ranked 1st a year ago, while it was ranked 3rd five years ago.
The District of Washington, D.C. ranked 2nd.
The Eastern District of California now ranks 3rd. The Eastern District of California was ranked 3rd a year ago, while it was ranked 5th five years ago.
Recent entries to the top 10 list were Northern District of New York (Syracuse), Washington, D.C. (Washington), South Carolina, Middle District of Georgia (Macon), Western District of Kentucky (Louisville) and Southern District of Indiana (Indianapolis), now ranked 4th, 2nd, 9th, 10th, 8th and 6th. These districts ranked 25th, 30th, 31st, 32nd, 48th and 68th one year ago and 34th, 1st, 20th, 15th, 13th and 87th five years ago.
The federal judicial district which showed the greatest growth in the rate of civil rights civil filings compared to one year ago — 837.5 percent — was Southern District of Indiana. This was the same district that had the largest increase — 7298.7 percent — when compared with five years ago.
In the last year, the judicial District Court recording the largest drop in the rate of civil rights civil filings — 8.1 percent — was Western District of Virginia. But over the past five years, Washington, D.C. showed the largest drop — 7.0 percent.
Report Generated: October 24, 2025
