Few defendants realize how much of recent federal criminal law has been written in Philadelphia. The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit — the appeals court for Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the U.S. Virgin Islands — produced the decision the Supreme Court affirmed in Rutherford, the en banc ruling that opened the deepest Second Amendment split in the country, and the case that forced the Sentencing Commission to rewrite its loss guideline. If you were convicted in this circuit, that body of law frames your appeal.
Below we cover the Third Circuit’s structure, its six district courts, the headline decisions every appellant here should understand, and the mechanics of taking an appeal to Philadelphia. Appellate work of this kind is what earned Elizabeth Franklin-Best her Best Lawyers in America 2026 listing as a “Best Lawyer” in Appellate Practice — across more than 100 federal appeals she has been admitted to and appeared in all twelve federal circuits and the Supreme Court of the United States, the Third included, taking cases pro hac vice in courts far from her home base — and it is part of why Chambers USA 2026 ranks the firm for Litigation: White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations. This page belongs to the federal courts directory; our federal criminal appeals hub covers the process itself in depth.
Convicted in federal court in Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, or the Virgin Islands? A paid, one-hour initial consultation with us puts the judgment, the sentencing record, and the Third Circuit’s current case law side by side — so you know what an appeal here can realistically achieve before the deadline runs.
Table of Contents
Quick Answer: Third Circuit Appeals
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What does the Third Circuit cover? | Appeals from six districts across Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, heard at the James A. Byrne U.S. Courthouse, 601 Market Street, Philadelphia. |
| How long do I have to file an appeal? | The Rule 4(b) notice of appeal is due 14 days after judgment is entered — count from the docket entry, not the hearing date. |
| Is an appeal a new trial? | No. Philadelphia reviews the existing record for legal error under set standards of review; evidence is never retaken on appeal. |
| Who decides the appeal? | A panel of three judges from the circuit’s 14 authorized judgeships; the full court takes a case en banc only for exceptional questions — as it did in Range. |
| Is the firm admitted to the Third Circuit? | Yes — the Third Circuit sits within Elizabeth Franklin-Best’s nationwide appellate admissions, and we brief appeals to Philadelphia from every district in the circuit. |
Key Takeaways
- The Third Circuit covers Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the U.S. Virgin Islands from the James A. Byrne U.S. Courthouse in Philadelphia, with 14 authorized judgeships under 28 U.S.C. § 44.
- In Rutherford, the Supreme Court (May 28, 2026) affirmed this circuit and adopted its rule nationwide: nonretroactive changes in sentencing law are not extraordinary and compelling reasons for compassionate release.
- The en banc court’s decision in Range makes this the leading circuit for as-applied Second Amendment challenges to § 922(g)(1) by nonviolent offenders — a split the Supreme Court has so far left standing.
- United States v. Banks struck intended loss from the fraud guideline’s reach in this circuit and pushed the Sentencing Commission to rewrite § 2B1.1 (Amendment 827, not retroactive).
- United States v. Melvin holds that early termination of supervised release requires no exceptional circumstances here.
- The 14-day Rule 4(b) deadline governs the notice of appeal; rehearing petitions in criminal cases are due 14 days after the panel’s judgment.
- FY2025 compassionate-release grant rate in the circuit’s district courts: 12.6% (12 of 95), below the 14.1% national rate — Rutherford‘s rule applied here earliest.
- We handle Third Circuit appeals through Elizabeth Franklin-Best’s admission to the court, plus trial and post-conviction work in all six districts, each covered by a guide below.
The Third Circuit at a Glance
The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit reviews the federal district courts of Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the U.S. Virgin Islands — a territory that runs from Wilmington’s corporate-fraud docket through Newark, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh to St. Thomas and St. Croix. Congress allots the court 14 judgeships under 28 U.S.C. § 44, and it sits at the James A. Byrne U.S. Courthouse at 601 Market Street in Philadelphia.
Its criminal docket spans white-collar prosecutions out of New Jersey and the Pennsylvania districts, corporate and securities matters connected to Delaware, drug and firearms cases, and public corruption — and in the last several years this circuit’s rulings on sentencing and the Second Amendment have repeatedly set the national agenda. What the Third Circuit decides binds every district judge from Wilmington to Charlotte Amalie.
For anyone convicted in one of the circuit’s six districts, this is the court of direct appeal. Three-judge panels do the day-to-day work; the full bench convenes en banc for questions of exceptional importance — and unlike some circuits, the Third has shown real willingness to use that tool, most prominently in Range.
How a Federal Criminal Appeal Proceeds
Appeals to Philadelphia run under the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure together with the Third Circuit’s Local Appellate Rules and Internal Operating Procedures — the documents that determine, among other things, whether your case will ever be argued aloud.
Step one is the notice of appeal — fourteen days from entry of judgment under Rule 4(b). For defendants sentenced in Camden, Philadelphia, Scranton, Pittsburgh, Wilmington, or the Virgin Islands alike, those two weeks decide whether there will be an appeal at all, so the conversation with appellate counsel belongs in the first days after sentencing, not the last.
Then comes briefing on the assembled record: the opening brief, the government’s answer, and a reply. The Third Circuit submits a substantial portion of its docket on the briefs alone — whether a case is argued is the panel’s call — so we write every Philadelphia brief on the assumption that no judge will ever ask us a question. The argument has to be complete, preserved, and standard-of-review-ready on paper.
When the panel does set oral argument, it is short and pointed. The written decision can affirm, reverse, vacate, or remand. After an adverse ruling, a petition for panel rehearing or rehearing en banc is due within 14 days in a criminal case — and because this circuit actually grants en banc review on major criminal questions, that petition can be more than a formality here. The final stop, if needed, is a petition for certiorari — the route Rutherford itself traveled.
Throughout, the standards of review govern everything: de novo for legal questions (including Guidelines interpretation — which is how Banks was won), clear error for facts, abuse of discretion for sentencing and evidentiary judgments, plain error for anything unpreserved. An issue that cannot satisfy its standard is not an issue; sorting the record accordingly is what our guides to the federal appellate process and the grounds for a federal appeal walk through.
Applied Insight: Banks is the model of how a Third Circuit appeal succeeds: not by relitigating facts, but by attacking the legal architecture of the sentence. The defense persuaded the court that the Guidelines commentary expanding “loss” to intended loss deserved no deference after Kisor, and the loss enhancement fell with it. When we screen a Philadelphia appeal, we look first for exactly that kind of issue — a calculation or instruction resting on an interpretation the text will not bear.
Where Third Circuit Law Leads the Country
Most circuits follow trends in federal criminal law. The Third Circuit has been setting them. Four lines of authority matter most to defendants appealing or seeking relief in this circuit today.
Compassionate release — the rule the Supreme Court adopted. In Rutherford, 120 F.4th 360 (3d Cir. 2024), this court held that the nonretroactive elimination of stacked § 924(c) sentences cannot count as an extraordinary and compelling reason under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A), rejecting the Sentencing Commission’s § 1B1.13(b)(6) to the contrary. On May 28, 2026, the Supreme Court affirmed, 6–3, making the Third Circuit’s rule the law everywhere and confirming in the companion Fernandez case that attacks on a conviction or sentence belong in a § 2255 motion, not a compassionate-release motion. Practically: movants in this circuit have been litigating under the stricter rule since late 2024, and viable motions now turn on medical condition, age, family circumstances, or abuse in custody.
The Second Amendment — the circuit that broke ranks. Sitting en banc in Range v. Attorney General, 124 F.4th 218 (3d Cir. 2024), the court held § 922(g)(1) unconstitutional as applied to a man whose only disqualifying conviction was a decades-old false statement to obtain food stamps — reasoning that he remained among “the people” and that the government identified no founding-era tradition of permanently disarming people like him. The Second Circuit has since held precisely the opposite for nonviolent felons, the Fifth and Ninth have sided with the government. When the Supreme Court finally entered the Second Amendment fray in United States v. Hemani, No. 24-1234 (U.S. June 18, 2026), it struck § 922(g)(3)’s disarmament of an unlawful drug user as applied yet expressly declined to decide the felon-in-possession question under § 922(g)(1) — so the split stands, Range remains good law in this circuit, and the Third Circuit is still the most favorable forum in the nation for as-applied challenges in federal firearms cases. The area is fast-moving; current-status research is part of any § 922(g) appeal we evaluate.
Fraud sentencing — the loss-table revolt. United States v. Banks, 55 F.4th 246 (3d Cir. 2022), held that “loss” in U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1 means actual loss: the commentary stretching it to intended loss received no deference once Kisor v. Wilkie tightened the rules, and the defendant’s enhancement was vacated. The decision rippled outward — the Sentencing Commission answered by writing intended loss into the guideline text itself (Amendment 827, effective November 1, 2024, and not retroactive). For white-collar defendants sentenced in this circuit before that date, Banks-based arguments shaped real outcomes; for everyone since, the fight has moved to how intended loss is proved.
Supervised release — early termination without drama. Under United States v. Melvin, 978 F.3d 49 (3d Cir. 2020), a person seeking early termination of supervised release need not show exceptional or unforeseen circumstances — they are enough but never required. Combined with the Sentencing Commission’s new early-termination guidance in § 5D1.4 (effective November 2025), that makes this circuit a sensible place to move for termination after a sustained period of compliance, a motion we often pair with broader post-conviction strategy.
Philadelphia Practice: The Bench, En Banc, and Argument
The court’s 14 authorized judgeships make it a mid-sized circuit — large enough for ideological range, small enough that en banc review is workable, which is part of why Range could happen here. A criminal rehearing petition is due 14 days after entry of judgment, and a majority of the active judges must vote to take a case en banc.
Oral argument at the Byrne Courthouse is panel-controlled: the judges decide which appeals they want to hear aloud, and a significant share of the docket is decided on the briefs. That allocation of attention rewards appellants whose briefs isolate one or two genuinely strong issues instead of scattering ten weak ones — the approach we describe in our direct-appeal guide.
Third Circuit Numbers That Matter
U.S. Sentencing Commission data for fiscal year 2025 shows district courts within the Third Circuit granted 12 of 95 compassionate-release motions decided — 12.6%, modestly below the national 14.1% (USSC FY2025 report). The figure deserves context: this circuit’s judges were applying Rutherford‘s strict rule a full year and a half before the Supreme Court imposed it on everyone else, so weaker law-change motions that might have survived screening elsewhere were already foreclosed here. The grant rate for well-grounded medical and family motions is the number that matters, and those grounds remain fully available.
Nationally, about 98% of sentenced federal defendants pleaded guilty in fiscal year 2025 — which means most Third Circuit criminal appeals concern sentences rather than verdicts. After Banks and Amendment 827, Guidelines-calculation issues in fraud cases remain among the most productive appellate targets in this circuit.
District Courts in the Third Circuit
From Delaware’s corporate corridor to the islands of the Caribbean, six district courts send their criminal judgments to Philadelphia for review. Each has its own researched guide:
- District of Delaware
- District of New Jersey
- Eastern District of Pennsylvania
- Middle District of Pennsylvania
- Western District of Pennsylvania
- District of the Virgin Islands
Convictions from each of these courts go up to the Third Circuit on direct appeal. Our work in the circuit spans the whole arc — trial defense in the district courts, the appeal in Philadelphia, and post-conviction litigation back in the sentencing court when the appeal is over.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which states does the Third Circuit cover?
Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, plus the U.S. Virgin Islands — six federal districts in total. The court hears its cases at the James A. Byrne U.S. Courthouse at 601 Market Street in Philadelphia.
How long do I have to appeal a federal conviction in the Third Circuit?
Fourteen days from the date judgment is entered on the docket, under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(b). A later petition for panel rehearing or rehearing en banc carries its own 14-day clock after the appellate judgment. Both windows are short enough that appellate counsel should be involved before sentencing if possible.
Is a federal appeal a second trial?
No. The Third Circuit reads the record that already exists — transcripts, exhibits, rulings — and asks whether the district court committed legal error that matters under the governing standard of review. Cases like Banks show how powerful that record-based review can be when the error is legal rather than factual.
Who decides a Third Circuit appeal?
A rotating panel of three judges drawn from the court’s 14 authorized judgeships. The full court can rehear a case en banc for questions of exceptional importance — Range, the leading Second Amendment decision, came out of exactly that procedure — and Supreme Court review by certiorari remains the final step.
What can the Third Circuit do with my case?
Affirm, reverse, vacate, or remand. Sentencing relief is common even where convictions stand: in Banks the court vacated a fraud sentence because the loss enhancement rested on Guidelines commentary that no longer warranted deference, and the case went back for resentencing.
What issues can be raised on appeal?
Anything preserved below that fits a standard of review — suppression rulings, instructions, sufficiency, constitutional claims, and above all Guidelines and sentencing issues. In this circuit, challenges to the legal interpretation behind a Guidelines calculation have a distinguished track record.
Is the firm admitted to practice in the Third Circuit?
Yes. Elizabeth Franklin-Best’s admissions span the U.S. Supreme Court and the federal circuit courts, the Third among them, and we handle criminal appeals to Philadelphia from all six of the circuit’s districts.
Does the firm also handle district court cases in the Third Circuit?
We do — federal trial defense in Delaware, New Jersey, the three Pennsylvania districts, and the Virgin Islands, along with the direct appeal and any later post-conviction motions in the district of conviction. Every district court in the circuit has its own guide on this site.
Is the felon-in-possession law unconstitutional in the Third Circuit?
Sometimes, as applied. In Range, the en banc court held that 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) could not constitutionally be applied to a man whose only disqualifying conviction was a nonviolent food-stamp false statement. The decision does not strike the statute down for everyone, other circuits disagree, and the law is moving quickly — but it makes the Third Circuit the strongest forum in the country for an as-applied challenge by a nonviolent offender.
What did Rutherford mean for compassionate release in the Third Circuit?
Rutherford began here: the Third Circuit ruled in 2024 that nonretroactive changes in sentencing law — like the end of § 924(c) stacking — cannot be extraordinary and compelling reasons, and the Supreme Court affirmed that view in May 2026. Compassionate-release motions in this circuit now rise or fall on medical, age, family, and abuse grounds.
How often is compassionate release granted in the Third Circuit?
In fiscal year 2025, the circuit’s district courts granted 12 of 95 motions decided — 12.6 percent, slightly under the 14.1 percent national rate, per U.S. Sentencing Commission data. Part of the gap reflects that Rutherford’s stricter rule applied here before it applied nationwide; well-supported medical and family motions remain viable.
Talk With a Third Circuit Appeals Lawyer
The Third Circuit rewards appellants who know its case law cold — Rutherford, Range, Banks, and Melvin each started as one defendant’s well-framed issue. If your federal case was tried or sentenced in Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, or the Virgin Islands, schedule a paid, one-hour initial consultation and we will tell you whether your record holds an issue worth taking to Philadelphia — before the fourteen-day deadline forecloses the question.