The Louisiana Constitution of 1845 allowed the legislature to establish "as many district courts as the public interest may require" (Title IV, Article 75). These district courts were to have original jurisdiction in all civil cases, when the amount in dispute exceeded $50, exclusive of interest. Act 43 of 1846 further detailed the organization of the district courts in the parish and city of New Orleans. The Act provided for five District Courts: the First, Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth District Courts of New Orleans.

Act 43 designated that, in addition to hearing civil cases, the First District Court was to keep a docket for criminal cases, and ordered that “the criminal cases shall be tried by preference over the civil cases.” The Attorney General or District Attorney were to file all informations with the First District Court and grand jurors for the parish of Orleans were to be empanelled before the court and were to return to the court all bills found by them and all presentments made by them. The Justices of the Peace, Recorders, the Mayor, or any committing magistrates for Orleans Parish were to transfer all “examinations, depositions, declarations, confessions, affidavits, bonds, recognizances, and general all other instruments, acts, documents, and papers whatever, taken or received in, or concerning any criminal cause to the Clerk of First District Court.”

Act 229 of 1853 further organized the Orleans Parish courts, giving the First District Court original and exclusive jurisdiction to prosecute “all crimes, misdemeanors and offenses whatever, which have been committed within the limits of the First Judicial District; except only such minor offenses as shall by law be referred to the jurisdiction of the Recorders of the city, or other police tribunals that may be hereafter organized by law.”

Act 124 of 1874 established the Superior Criminal Court for the Parish of Orleans and removed from the jurisdiction of the First District Court, cases involving the following matters: offenses punishable by death, life imprisonment, or imprisonment at hard labor for more than five years; violations of the state election and registration laws; offenses committed by officers of the state and its municipalities; bribery; unlawful assemblage; carrying concealed weapons; conspiracy to commit crime; conspiracy to oppose execution of laws; obstruction of the performance of public officers; malfeasance, extortion, or oppression in office; attempting to bribe grand or petit jurors; and grand larceny. All cases involving these matters pending before the First District Court were transferred to the Superior Criminal Court for the Parish of Orleans, which also created by Act 124. The new court also took over as the office for the filing of election returns and voter registrations.

The Louisiana Constitution of 1879 established two disctrict courts for the parish of Orleans, consolidating all of the existing civil courts into a single Civil District Court and creating a single Criminal District Court. Cases pending in the First District Court (and in the Superior District Court) were transferred to the Criminal District Court under new docket numbers.