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Notice and appeal deadlines

Donald Edward Smith v. United States

Updated Nov 12, 2026

In brief

Where it stands
Petition Pending

Awaiting an order on the petition

No decision timeline until the Court agrees to hear the case.

What it’s about
Donald Edward Smith asks the Supreme Court to review his claim that the Eleventh Circuit enforced a 21-day deadline after mailing an order denying a certificate of appealability (permission to appeal) to his old address, despite receiving his address change, and then refused corrective relief.
What's at stake
Whether Smith can get a remedy after the 21-day deadline remains unresolved.

Summary: written with AI from the case record.

What it's about

The petition was sent to a conference, which does not mean the Court agreed to hear it.

Smith’s petition asks whether the missed notice violated his right to fair process and whether the appeals court’s rules allowed it to provide a remedy.

Question presented

1. Whether due process permits a federal court of appeals to enforce a twenty-one-day deadline for reconsideration of a certificate-of-appealability denial when the Clerk received and file-stamped a pro se litigant’s change-of-address notice before the denial issued, but the court mailed the dispositive order to the superseded address and the litigant therefore received no timely notice of the order or the deadline. 2. Whether a federal court of appeals may refuse all corrective relief, without addressing the documented notice failure, where the court’s own rules authorize extensions of court-rule deadlines for good cause, subject to Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 26(b), and authorize recall of a mandate to prevent injustice.

What happens next

The Court must decide whether to hear the case. The petition was distributed for a Dec. 4, 2026 conference, but that does not guarantee an order or decision on that date.

Documents

1

Docket activity

5
  • New analysis added

    Nov 12, 2026 · Court records

  • AI analysis generated: Case Briefing

    Nov 12, 2026 · Generated

  • Case data updated: summary, question_presented, generation_metadata

    Nov 12, 2026 · Court records

  • Case data updated: question_presented, extraction_metadata

    Nov 12, 2026 · Court records

  • Brief added: Petition

    Sep 3, 2026 · Court records

Sources

Primary materials plus reporting. Best-effort analysis: this explainer relies on a mix of primary materials and trusted secondary sources. Official filings and opinions remain authoritative.

Checked Nov 12, 2026Methodology

Court records and filings

Reporting and analysis