[3] "To obtain a [certificate of appealability], the [petitioner] must make a request to a district or circuit court judge.
In general, the application process is informal, there is no hearing, and the government rarely files a brief in response to the prisoner's request.
"[5] A certificate of appealability is also not required for petitioners seeking a writ of coram nobis; however, the writ of coram nobis is only available for those who are no longer in-custody (or on probation) and the issues raised in the petition could not have been known while the petitioner was in-custody.
[6] The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 changed the procedures for issuing a certificate of appealability in federal court.
[7] The United States Supreme Court held in Slack v. McDaniel, 529 U.S. 473 (2000), that the standard for issuing a certificate is whether "reasonable jurists could debate whether (or, for that matter, agree that) the petition should have been resolved in a different manner".