Cincinnati is where federal convictions from Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee go to be tested. The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reviews judgments from the nine federal district courts in those four states, and it does so under a body of circuit precedent — on Guidelines commentary, on compassionate release, on much else — that differs in meaningful ways from its neighbors.
On this page we cover the Sixth Circuit itself: its structure, the doctrines that make it distinctive — including its strict approach to Sentencing Guidelines commentary — and the path an appeal follows from filing to decision. Elizabeth Franklin-Best is admitted to and has appeared in the Sixth Circuit, part of a federal appellate practice that spans more than 100 appeals across all twelve circuits and the U.S. Supreme Court. She is recognized in Best Lawyers in America 2026 as a “Best Lawyer” in Appellate Practice, carries a Chambers USA 2026 ranking for Litigation: White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations, and is the author of Reversing Your Criminal Conviction. This page belongs to our federal courts directory; the firm-wide guide to federal criminal appeals covers the process across circuits.
If your conviction came out of a federal courtroom in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, or Tennessee, we offer a paid, one-hour initial consultation focused on the questions that decide Sixth Circuit appeals: what was preserved, what the record shows, and which of this circuit’s doctrines give your case leverage.
Table of Contents
Quick Answer: Sixth Circuit Appeals
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What does the Sixth Circuit cover? | Federal appeals from the nine district courts of Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee, heard at the Potter Stewart U.S. Courthouse in Cincinnati. |
| How long do I have to file an appeal? | The criminal notice-of-appeal deadline is 14 days after entry of judgment — short, strict, and rarely forgiven. |
| Is an appeal a new trial? | No. The Sixth Circuit takes the trial record as it finds it and asks one question: did the district court commit legal error? |
| Who decides the appeal? | A three-judge panel drawn from the court’s 16 authorized judgeships; the full court rehears only exceptional cases en banc. |
| What recent rulings matter here? | Havis bars Guidelines enhancements built on commentary rather than text, and the circuit’s rule against change-in-law compassionate release (McCall, Bricker) was adopted nationwide by the Supreme Court in Rutherford (2026). |
| Is the firm admitted to the Sixth Circuit? | Yes. The Sixth is one of the twelve federal circuits where Elizabeth Franklin-Best is admitted, along with the Northern District of Ohio and the Eastern District of Michigan. |
Key Takeaways
- The Sixth Circuit reviews federal convictions from Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee at the Potter Stewart U.S. Courthouse, 100 East Fifth Street, Cincinnati.
- Congress has authorized 16 judgeships for the court — among the larger federal appellate benches.
- A criminal defendant has 14 days from entry of judgment to file the notice of appeal; lose that window and the appeal is usually gone.
- Under the en banc decision in United States v. Havis, Guidelines commentary cannot add to the Guidelines’ text — a recurring source of sentencing relief in this circuit.
- The Sixth Circuit’s rule that nonretroactive changes in law cannot support compassionate release (McCall, Bricker) became the national rule when the Supreme Court decided Rutherford in May 2026.
- Appeals are decided on the record and the briefs; the court hears argument in Cincinnati and streams it publicly.
- Nine district courts — from Detroit to Memphis — sit within the circuit, each with its own guide on this site.
- Elizabeth Franklin-Best is admitted to the Sixth Circuit, the Northern District of Ohio, and the Eastern District of Michigan, and we handle trial, appellate, and post-conviction matters throughout the four states.
The Sixth Circuit at a Glance
The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit serves four states — Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee — from the Potter Stewart United States Courthouse at 100 East Fifth Street in Cincinnati. Under 28 U.S.C. § 44, Congress has authorized 16 judgeships for the court, placing it among the largest federal appellate benches.
The circuit’s criminal docket reflects its geography. The metropolitan districts — Detroit, Cleveland, Columbus, Nashville, Memphis — generate steady streams of white-collar, health-care-fraud, and public-corruption prosecutions, while the Kentucky and Tennessee districts have carried a heavy share of the opioid-era drug and prescribing cases. Whatever the charge, the Sixth Circuit’s published decisions bind all nine district courts and set the rules of engagement for every federal criminal case in the region.
If you were convicted in any of the four states, your direct appeal goes to this court and no other. Three-judge panels do the day-to-day work; the full bench convenes en banc only for the questions important enough to warrant it — as it did in Havis and McCall, two decisions that now define the circuit’s identity in criminal cases.
How a Federal Criminal Appeal Proceeds
The mechanics come from the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, filled in by the Sixth Circuit’s local rules and internal operating procedures. Four stages matter most.
First, the notice of appeal: fourteen days from entry of judgment in a criminal case. Miss it and the right to appeal can vanish — the Sixth Circuit treats the deadline as close to absolute, so the conversation with appellate counsel should happen at sentencing, not weeks later.
Second, the record and the briefs. The appellant’s opening brief carries the appeal — it selects the errors worth raising, builds each argument from the trial record, and meets the standard of review head-on. The government answers; a reply brief gets the last word in writing.
Third, decision — with or without oral argument in Cincinnati — in a written opinion that can affirm, reverse, vacate, or remand. Fourth, review of the panel’s work: a petition for rehearing or rehearing en banc, and finally a petition for certiorari asking the Supreme Court to take the case.
Throughout, the standard of review does much of the work. Pure legal questions — including whether a prior conviction counts as a predicate offense under the Guidelines, the issue in Havis — get de novo review in the Sixth Circuit. Factual findings are tested only for clear error, and most discretionary sentencing judgments are reviewed deferentially. Picking the issues that travel under the friendliest standard is half of appellate strategy; our guides to the appellate process and the grounds for a federal appeal take this up at length.
Applied Insight: In the Sixth Circuit, as everywhere, the vehicle matters as much as the claim. An ineffective-assistance claim usually does not belong on direct appeal at all — under Massaro v. United States, 538 U.S. 500 (2003), it is generally better raised in a § 2255 motion, where the record about counsel’s choices can actually be built. We sort record-based claims from extra-record claims at the outset, because guessing wrong can cost a client the stronger argument.
The Havis Rule: Guidelines Commentary in the Sixth Circuit
Among sentencing lawyers, the Sixth Circuit is best known for its hard line on Sentencing Guidelines commentary. In United States v. Havis, 927 F.3d 382 (6th Cir. 2019) (en banc), the full court held that the Sentencing Commission’s application notes may interpret the Guidelines but can never add to them. Because the text of § 4B1.2 said nothing about attempt crimes, commentary purporting to sweep them into the definition of a “controlled substance offense” deserved no deference — and a Tennessee conviction involving attempted delivery could not trigger the enhancement.
Havis helped ignite a national fight over how much deference Guidelines commentary gets under Stinson v. United States, 508 U.S. 36 (1993), a fight later sharpened by Kisor v. Wilkie, 588 U.S. 558 (2019). The Sentencing Commission eventually conceded the point in practice: effective November 1, 2023, Amendment 822 moved the inchoate-offense language out of the commentary and into § 4B1.2’s text itself, citing the circuit conflict that Havis helped create.
The amendment did not retire the doctrine. Plenty of enhancements elsewhere in the Guidelines Manual still rest on commentary rather than text, and in this circuit each of them is a potential Havis issue. When we review a Sixth Circuit sentence, one of the first questions we ask is whether any enhancement the court applied actually appears in the guideline itself — because if it lives only in an application note, the de novo standard of review gives the argument real teeth on appeal.
Compassionate Release in the Sixth Circuit After Rutherford
For years the Sixth Circuit sat at the center of the national argument over whether changes in sentencing law can support compassionate release under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A). Its en banc decision in United States v. McCall, 56 F.4th 1048 (6th Cir. 2022), held that nonretroactive legal developments — alone or combined with other factors — cannot amount to an extraordinary and compelling reason. When the Sentencing Commission tried to reach the opposite result through § 1B1.13(b)(6) of the 2023 policy statement, the court answered in United States v. Bricker, 135 F.4th 427 (6th Cir. 2025), holding that the Commission had overstepped its authority and that (b)(6) was invalid.
On May 28, 2026, the Supreme Court adopted the Sixth Circuit’s bottom line for the whole country. Rutherford v. United States held, 6–3, that nonretroactive changes in law are not extraordinary and compelling reasons and that § 1B1.13(b)(6) is invalid to that extent; the companion decision in Fernandez v. United States confirmed that an attack on the conviction or sentence itself belongs in a § 2255 motion, not a compassionate-release motion. For defendants sentenced in this circuit, the practical landscape barely moved — McCall had already closed that door here — but the ruling ended any hope that a circuit shift would reopen it.
What remains is the heartland of the statute: serious medical conditions, advanced age, family caregiving emergencies, and the other grounds the policy statement still recognizes. Nationally, the Sentencing Commission’s full-year figures for fiscal year 2025 put the grant rate at about 14.1% — 394 of 2,795 motions, with wide circuit-to-circuit variation — which is why we build Sixth Circuit motions on thoroughly documented, statute-grounded reasons rather than legal-change arguments that are now foreclosed.
En Banc Review and Oral Argument at the Sixth Circuit
En banc review is the exception, but in the Sixth Circuit it is an exception with consequences — Havis and McCall were both en banc decisions that reshaped criminal practice across four states. Under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 40, which has governed both panel rehearing and rehearing en banc since the December 2024 rules consolidation, a criminal defendant ordinarily has fourteen days from the panel’s judgment to file the petition. The full bench — up to 16 active judges — takes a case only when a majority concludes the question demands it.
Argument itself happens at the Potter Stewart U.S. Courthouse in Cincinnati, and the Sixth Circuit is unusually accessible about it: the court posts audio of completed arguments and streams live arguments on its website. Not every appeal is argued — many are submitted on the briefs — but when a case is calendared, listening to how a panel has questioned counsel in similar cases is part of how we prepare.
District Courts in the Sixth Circuit
Federal cases in the circuit start in one of nine district courts, spread across four states from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to the Mississippi River at Memphis. We have prepared an individually researched guide for each:
- Eastern District of Kentucky
- Western District of Kentucky
- Eastern District of Michigan
- Western District of Michigan
- Northern District of Ohio
- Southern District of Ohio
- Eastern District of Tennessee
- Middle District of Tennessee
- Western District of Tennessee
Whichever of these courts entered the judgment, the appeal lands in Cincinnati. Our representation covers the whole arc — trial defense in the district courts, the appeal to the Sixth Circuit, and post-conviction litigation back in the court that imposed the sentence.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which states does the Sixth Circuit cover?
Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee. Appeals from the nine federal district courts in those states are decided at the Potter Stewart U.S. Courthouse in Cincinnati, and the circuit’s published opinions bind every federal trial judge in the four states.
How long do I have to appeal a federal conviction in the Sixth Circuit?
Fourteen days from the entry of judgment, as a general rule. The window is one of the shortest deadlines in federal practice, and waiting until it is nearly closed leaves no room for problems, so the appeal decision should be made at or before sentencing.
Is a Sixth Circuit appeal a new trial?
No. The court works exclusively from the record made in the district court — transcripts, exhibits, and rulings. Nothing new is presented; the panel asks whether legal error occurred below and whether that error matters under the governing standard of review.
Who decides a Sixth Circuit appeal?
Three judges from the court’s 16 authorized judgeships sit on each panel. Rehearing by the full court en banc is reserved for exceptional questions — though the Sixth Circuit has used it to decide major criminal issues like Havis and McCall. Supreme Court review by certiorari is the final, discretionary step.
What can the Sixth Circuit do with my case?
Affirm, reverse, vacate, or remand — in whole or in part. A common outcome in sentencing appeals is a remand for resentencing: the conviction survives, but the district court must redo the sentence under a corrected Guidelines analysis.
What is the difference between an appeal and a § 2255 motion?
A direct appeal goes to the Sixth Circuit and is limited to the existing trial record. A § 2255 motion is filed in the district court that imposed the sentence and can rely on evidence outside the record — which is why ineffective-assistance claims are usually raised there rather than on appeal.
What is the Havis rule in the Sixth Circuit?
It comes from United States v. Havis, the 2019 en banc decision holding that Sentencing Guidelines commentary may interpret the Guidelines but cannot add to them. Any enhancement that exists only in an application note, not in the guideline text, is open to challenge in this circuit.
Can a change in the law support compassionate release in the Sixth Circuit?
No. The Sixth Circuit barred change-in-law compassionate release in McCall and struck down the Sentencing Commission’s contrary policy provision in Bricker, and the Supreme Court adopted that position nationally in Rutherford v. United States in May 2026. Medical, age, and family-based grounds remain available.
Can I watch or listen to Sixth Circuit oral arguments?
Yes. The court streams live arguments and posts audio recordings of completed arguments on its website, ca6.uscourts.gov. Listening to past arguments is a useful way to understand how the court engages with the issues in a pending appeal.
Is Elizabeth Franklin-Best admitted to the Sixth Circuit?
Yes — along with the Northern District of Ohio and the Eastern District of Michigan. Her appellate admissions cover all twelve federal circuits plus the U.S. Supreme Court, so a Sixth Circuit appeal can be paired with any later stage of review without changing counsel.
Does the firm handle district court cases within the Sixth Circuit?
Yes. We take federal matters at every level in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee — investigations and trials in the district courts, appeals in Cincinnati, and post-conviction motions, including § 2255 and compassionate release, in the sentencing court. Each district has its own guide on this site.
How much federal appellate experience does the firm have?
Elizabeth Franklin-Best maintains a nationwide federal appellate practice covering more than 100 appeals, with admissions to all twelve federal circuits and the U.S. Supreme Court. She is recognized by Best Lawyers in America 2026 in Appellate Practice and ranked by Chambers USA 2026 for white-collar criminal litigation, and she is the author of Reversing Your Criminal Conviction. That breadth informs how we frame and preserve issues for the Sixth Circuit, though no lawyer can promise a particular result.
Talk With a Sixth Circuit Appeals Lawyer
A Sixth Circuit appeal rewards lawyers who know this circuit’s doctrines — where Havis reaches, what survived Rutherford, which arguments the standard of review will carry. In a paid, one-hour initial consultation we examine your judgment from Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, or Tennessee, sort the record-based claims from the § 2255 material, and give you a frank read on the appeal before the fourteen-day clock runs out. The earlier you call, the more options stay open.