When must an aggrieved party petition for review under the Hobbs Act?

For a final order reviewable under the Hobbs Act, 28 U.S.C. § 2344 provides sixty days after entry to file a petition for review in the proper court of appeals. First establish that the agency action falls within the governing review statute and identify its legally operative entry. This is not a sixty-day default for every federal agency dispute.

Responsible actor. The aggrieved party seeking judicial review of a covered final agency order.

Identify the covered agency, statutory review route and final order.

Retain the order and evidence establishing entry under the agency’s governing rule.

Establish the proper circuit, filing method, participant service and any actual authorized relief.

The Hobbs Act’s sixty-day period applies to a covered final agency order, not every administrative decision. The agency’s governing rules can determine when its order is entered for review. This guide supplies no automatic date or paid calculation. Establish coverage, finality, the entry rule, proper circuit and filing conditions before counting a petition period.

1. Identify the covered agency, statutory review route and final order.
2. Retain the order and evidence establishing entry under the agency’s governing rule.
3. Establish the proper circuit, filing method, participant service and any actual authorized relief.
4. Exclude the legally operative entry day and count sixty successive calendar days under FRAP 26(a)(1), unless the applicable law specifies a different computation. Service or publication may identify the relevant agency event under its own rules. Do not substitute counsel’s receipt or the order’s typed date without that legal basis.
5. For this forward appellate period, FRAP 26(a) adjusts a final Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday and separately addresses clerk inaccessibility. Check its federal and declared holidays and the state holiday at the circuit clerk’s principal office. An agency proceeding does not itself establish a challenged district-court location. Verify the actual circuit, local rules and any controlling order.
6. File the review petition with the circuit clerk authorized to review the order. FRAP 15 requires identification of each petitioner, the respondent agency and the order under review. Section 2344 requires the order, report or decision as an exhibit. Complete required fees or established alternative, participant service and the service list. Ordinary paper receipt under FRAP 25 differs from brief-mailing treatment; electronic filing and any inmate branch require their own facts.

Exclude the legally operative entry day and count sixty successive calendar days under FRAP 26(a)(1), unless the applicable law specifies a different computation. Service or publication may identify the relevant agency event under its own rules. Do not substitute counsel’s receipt or the order’s typed date without that legal basis.

For this forward appellate period, FRAP 26(a) adjusts a final Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday and separately addresses clerk inaccessibility. Check its federal and declared holidays and the state holiday at the circuit clerk’s principal office. An agency proceeding does not itself establish a challenged district-court location. Verify the actual circuit, local rules and any controlling order.

The Hobbs Act’s sixty-day period applies to a covered final agency order, not every administrative decision. The agency’s governing rules can determine when its order is entered for review. This guide supplies no automatic date or paid calculation. Establish coverage, finality, the entry rule, proper circuit and filing conditions before counting a petition period.

Assume a covered final order entered March 2, 2026. An independent enumeration counts sixty days beginning March 3. The arithmetic does not establish agency coverage, venue or court access. Confirm the agency entry and appellate filing facts before adopting any final date.

Assume a covered order entered April 1, 2026. The sixtieth raw day is Sunday, May 31. Apply FRAP 26 only after checking the circuit’s holiday and accessibility facts. The raw Sunday is not a certified filing deadline.

An FCC Public Notice is released later than the underlying document is signed. Brown used the applicable FCC finality and Public Notice release provisions. Preserve those provisions before selecting the later event. The signature date and legally operative entry cannot be treated as interchangeable.

The agency decision is a final removal order. Section 1252(b)(1) supplies a separate thirty-day rule. A sixty-day Hobbs default would answer the wrong statutory question. Classify the removal-review route separately.

Covered agency action and finality

Identify the specific statutory route making this agency action reviewable. Section 2342 identifies covered categories and exclusions. A generic administrative label does not establish Hobbs Act coverage.

Agency-specific operative entry

Obtain the agency’s actual entry and finality provisions. Brown’s FCC example used the released Public Notice under the cited FCC regulations. That FCC event does not establish the entry rule for another agency.

Appellate computation and calendar

FRAP 26 supplies the day count, applicable declared holidays and actual clerk-inaccessibility treatment. The selected circuit and its principal-office state must be established.

Required petition filing and participant service

FRAP 15 requires filing with the authorized circuit clerk and distinguishes clerk service from petitioner service on agency participants. Verify the actual statute’s different service requirements.

Actual authority for an extension

FRAP 26(b)(2) prohibits extending agency-review time unless specifically authorized by law. Establish that legal authority and any actual relief instead of presuming an ordinary extension power.

Jurisdictional characterization

Brown footnote 6 expressly reserved whether § 2344’s sixty-day deadline is jurisdictional. This guide makes no universal contrary holding or automatic inference of relief.

• The Hobbs Act’s sixty-day period applies to a covered final agency order, not every administrative decision. The agency’s governing rules can determine when its order is entered for review. This guide supplies no automatic date or paid calculation. Establish coverage, finality, the entry rule, proper circuit and filing conditions before counting a petition period.
• A Hobbs petition challenges a covered final agency order within sixty days of its entry. A removal-order petition uses the separate thirty-day immigration statute. An agency-enforcement answer responds to an application already filed and therefore has a different actor and event.

• Identify the covered agency, statutory review route and final order.
• Retain the order and evidence establishing entry under the agency’s governing rule.
• Establish the proper circuit, filing method, participant service and any actual authorized relief.
• File the review petition with the circuit clerk authorized to review the order. FRAP 15 requires identification of each petitioner, the respondent agency and the order under review. Section 2344 requires the order, report or decision as an exhibit. Complete required fees or established alternative, participant service and the service list. Ordinary paper receipt under FRAP 25 differs from brief-mailing treatment; electronic filing and any inmate branch require their own facts.
• File the review petition with the circuit clerk authorized to review the order. FRAP 15 requires identification of each petitioner, the respondent agency and the order under review. Section 2344 requires the order, report or decision as an exhibit. Complete required fees or established alternative, participant service and the service list. Ordinary paper receipt under FRAP 25 differs from brief-mailing treatment; electronic filing and any inmate branch require their own facts.