U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit is one of the thirteen U.S. courts of appeals, the intermediate appellate tier of the federal judiciary. It hears appeals from the federal district courts within the Third Circuit, which covers Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and U.S. Virgin Islands. Its decisions bind those courts unless reviewed by the Supreme Court of the United States.
| Judge | Appointed by | Since |
|---|---|---|
| Robert E. Cowen | Reagan (R) | 1987 |
| Anthony Joseph Scirica | Reagan (R) | 1987 |
| Richard Lowell Nygaard | Reagan (R) | 1988 |
| Jane Richards Roth | Bush (R) | 1991 |
| Theodore Alexander McKee | Clinton (D) | 1994 |
| Marjorie O. Rendell | Clinton (D) | 1997 |
| Thomas L. Ambro | Clinton (D) | 2000 |
| Julio M. Fuentes | Clinton (D) | 2000 |
| D[avid] Brooks Smith | Bush (R) | 2002 |
| D. Michael Fisher | Bush (R) | 2003 |
| Michael A. Chagares | Bush (R) | 2006 |
| Thomas Michael Hardiman | Bush (R) | 2007 |
| Patty Shwartz | Obama (D) | 2013 |
| Cheryl Ann Krause | Obama (D) | 2014 |
| Luis Felipe Restrepo | Obama (D) | 2016 |
| Stephanos Bibas | Trump (R) | 2017 |
| David James Porter | Trump (R) | 2018 |
| Paul Brian Matey | Trump (R) | 2019 |
| Peter Joseph Phipps | Trump (R) | 2019 |
| Arianna Julia Freeman | Biden (D) | 2022 |
| Cindy Kyounga Chung | Biden (D) | 2023 |
| Tamika Renee Montgomery-Reeves | Biden (D) | 2023 |
| Emil Joseph Bove III | Trump (R) | 2025 |
| Jennifer Lee Mascott | Trump (R) | 2025 |
The federal trial courts whose appeals this circuit reviews.
How a judge gets here. Each judge is nominated by a president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, then holds a numbered seat, for life, until they take senior status, or until they leave the bench. Open any judge to see who appointed them, how the Senate voted, and whom they succeeded, a chain that runs back to 1891.
Source: FJC Biographical Directory. Data last verified 2026-06-28. Verify against the primary source before relying.