91 STAT. 1266
PUBLIC LAW 95-157—NOV. 8, 1977
(c) The provisions of chaptors 43 and 49 of titio 28, United States 28 USC 631, Code, and the rules lioretofore or hereafter promulgated and made 751. effective by the Congress or the Supremc Court of the United States pursuant to titles 11, IH, 28, United States Code, shall apply to the District Court for the Xorthern Mariana Islands and appeals therefrom where appropriate, except as otherwise provided in articles IV and V of the covenant provided by the Act of March 24, 1976 (90 48 USC 481 note. Stat. 263). The terms "attorney for the jjovernment" and "United States attorney" as used in the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure (rule 54(c)) shall, when applicable to cases arisinff under the laws 28 USC app. of the Xortherii ^fariaiui Islands, include the attorney freneral of the Xorthern Mariana Islands oi- any other pei\son or persons as may be authorized by the laws of the Xorthern Marianas to act therein. Jurisdiction. SEC. 2. (a) The District Court for the Xorthern Mariaiui Islands 48 USC 1694a. shall have the jurisdiction of a district court of the United States, u s e prec. title 1. except that in all causes arisiu<r undei- the Constitution, treaties, or laws of the United States, it shall have jurisdiction rej^ardless of the sum or \alue of the matter in controversy. (b) The district court shall have ori<rinal jurisdiction in all causes in the Xorthern Mariana Islands not described in subsection (a) jurisdiction over which is not vested by the Constitution oi* laws of the Xorthern Mariana Islands in a court or courts of the Xorthern Mariana Islands. In causes brou<rht in the district court solely on the basis of this subsection, the district court shall be considered a court of the Xorthern Mariana Islands for the purposes of determining the requirements of indictment by <i:rand jury or trial by jury. Appellate SKC. 8. The district court shall have such appellate jurisdiction as jurisdiction. the Constitution and laws of the Xorthern Mariana Islands))rovide. 48 USC 1694b. Appeals to the district court shall be heard and determined by an appellate division of the couil consisting of three judges, of whom two shall constitute a quorum. The judge appointed for the court by the President shall be the presiding judge of the appellate division and shall preside therein unless disqiialified or otherwise unable to act. The other judges who are to sit in the appellate division at any session shall be designated by the presiding judge from among the judges assigned to the court from time to time pursuant to subsection 1(b) (2): Provided, horverer, That only one of them shall be a judge of a court of record of the Xorthern Mariana Islands. The concurrence of two judges shall be necessary to any decision by the district court on the merits of an appeal but the presiding judge alone may make any appropriate orders with respect to an appeal prior to the hearing and determination thereof on the merits and may dismiss an appeal for want of jurisdiction or failure to take or prosecute it in accordance with the applicable law or rules of procedure. Relationship SEC. 4. (a) The relations between the courts established by the Conbetween district stitution or laws of the United States and the courts of the Xorthern and local courts. Mariana Islands with respect to appeals, certiorari, removal 48 USC 1694c. of causes, the issuance of writs of habeas corpus, and other matters or proceedings shall be governed by the laws of the United States pertaining to the relations between the courts of the United States and the courts of the several States in such matters and proceedings, except as otherwise provided in article IV of the covenant: Provided, That for the first fifteen years following the establishment of an appellate court of the Xorthern Mariana Islands the United States court of appeals for the judicial circuit which includes the Xorthern Mariana Islands shall have jurisdiction of appeals from all final decisions of the highest court of the Xorthern Mariana Islands from which a deci-
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