The Southern District of New York administers and presides over some of the most complex and high-profile cases in the country, with litigation of national and international significance. The District of New York held its first session on the first Tuesday of November 1789 at the Old Royal Exchange in lower Manhattan presided over by Judge James Duane, who was appointed by President Washington. It was the first court to sit under the new United States Constitution, preceding the United States Supreme Court by a few months. The District and its successor, the Southern District of New York, have sat continuously in New York, NY, since 1789. The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York hears cases in Manhattan, White Plains, and Poughkeepsie, New York.