OPINION
A fеderal prisoner challenging the legality of a sentence must generally do so by a motion pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255. However, when a motion under § 2255 is “inadequate or ineffective to test the legality” of a prisoner’s detention, see id., a prisoner may bring a habeas petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2241. This appeal requires us to determine whether the petitioner, Dave Harrison, was entitled to bring his habeas petition under § 2241. Before reaching that question, we must determine whether Harrison needs a certificate of appealability, see 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c), beforе he can appeal the district court’s dismissal of his § 2241 petition for lack of jurisdiction.
I
In 1988, Dave Harrison was charged with using a pipe bomb to blow up a 1978 Volkswagen van and with burning a 1974 Reinell cabin cruiser motorboat. Harrison pleaded guilty in the district court for the Southern District of California to bombing and arson, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 844(i). 1 This federal arson statute includes an interstate commerce element for purposes of establishing federal jurisdiction, namely, that the arson must have affected a “building, vehicle, or other real or personal property used in interstate or foreign commerce or in any activity affecting interstate or foreign commerce.” Id.
As part of the plea agreement, both Harrison and the government stipulated to the interstate commerce component of § 844(i). For the van, the parties stipulated:
[A]t the time the van was driven and used in the commercial business which [Harrison’s wife] delivered, basically delivered cakes to many people[;] those cakes have traveled in interstate commerce.
In addition, the van was fueled with gasoline that had traveled in interstate and foreign commerce; and, finally, the van itself had been manufactured in the Republic of West Germany, having traveled in foreign commerce, had been sold here in California and replacement parts necessary to repair the damage that the defendant did will also travel in interstate and foreign commerce.
The parties stipulated to the interstate commerce component for the cabin cruiser motorbоat as follows:
[T]he boat was manufactured in 1974 in the state of Washington. It was traveling in interstate commerce and was sold in California. At the time it was destroyed had been [sic] many parts had traveled in interstate commerce. The boat was licensed in the state of Nevada and the owner of the boat paid a fee to a business for the care and maintained *955 and stored the boat in the state of Nevada where it was moored most of the time. The owner of the boat frequently crossed state lines with it bringing it to California and between Nevada and Arizona.
Harrison was sentenced by the district court for the Southern,District of California to two consecutive ten-year prison terms for the arson and bombing, which were to be followed by a five-year probationary term for aiding and abetting the interstate transportation of stolen property. Harrison is currently in state prison in the Central District of California and will commence federal parole upon his release. 2 For purposes of clarity, we will refer to the district cоurt for the Southern District of California, where Harrison was sentenced, as the “sentencing court,” and the district court for the Central District of California, where Harrison is in custody, as the “custodial court.”
Harrison filed a timely notice of appeal on March 1, 1989. We dismissed the appeal for failure to prosecute on June 28, 1989. Apparently unaware of this dismissal, Harrison also filed a motion for voluntary dismissal of his appeal on August 1, 1989.
Following his direct appeal, Harrison attempted to challenge his conviction and sentence by means of motions under § 2255 and petitions under § 2241. The history of Harrison’s collateral challenges to his conviction must be understood in the context of these two bases for collateral relief from federal sentences, § 2255 and § 2241, and the limitations Congress has imposed on these forms of relief.
A
As a general rule, “§ 2255 provides the exclusive procedural mechanism by which a federal prisoner may test the legality of detention.”
Lorentsen v. Hood,
(1) newly discovered evidence that, if proven and viewed in light of the evidence as a whole, would be sufficient to establish by clear and cоnvincing evidence that no reasonable factfinder would have found the movant guilty of the offense; or ■
(2) a new rule of constitutional law, made retroactive to cases on collateral review by the Supreme Court, that was previously unavailable.
28 U.S.C. § 2255. Nor may a prisoner appeal the denial of a § 2255 motion unless this court or the district court issues a certificate of appealability (COA) under § 2253(c). 3 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c)(B). Such *956 a certificate may issue “only if the applicant has made a substantial showing of the denial of а constitutional right.” Id.
“Generally, motions to contest the legality of a sentence must be filed under § 2255 in the sentencing court, while petitions that challenge the manner, location, or conditions of a sentence’s execution must be brought pursuant to § 2241 in the custodial court.”
Hernandez v. Campbell,
B
In February 1992, Harrison filed his first § 2255 habeas petition in the sentencing court. The sentencing court denied the motion as procedurally barred due to Harrison’s failure to pursue his direct appeal. We affirmed the district court’s ruling in November 1994.
In August 1999, Harrison filed a second habeas petition in the sentencing court to vacate his sentence under § 2255. The judges of the Southern District of California recused themselves, and we assigned the case to Judge James K. Singleton, of the District of Alaska.
While this petition was pending, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in
Jones v. United States,
In September 2000, Judge Singleton dismissed Harrison’s petition on the ground that it was a second or successive motion, requiring Harrison to obtain a certificate pursuant to § 2255 before he could file it. We denied Harrison’s request for certification of this petition in May 2001.
In July 2001, Harrison filed a petition pursuant to § 2241 in the sentencing сourt seeking to vacate his sentence in light of Jones v. United States. Without analyzing whether Harrison could file a § 2241 petition pursuant to the savings clause of § 2255, the sentencing court dismissed Harrison’s petition for lack of jurisdiction.
Harrison thereupon filed his § 2241 petition in the custodial court. As required by
Hernandez v. Campbell,
Upon reviewing Harrison’s § 2241 petition, the custodial court determined that Harrison had failed to establish that his remedies under § 2255 were inadequate or ineffective, and therefore held that Harrison’s petition could not be filed under § 2241. Accordingly, the custodial court deemed Harrison’s petition to be a motion under § 2255. Because jurisdiction over such a motion would lie only in the sentencing court, the custodial court transferred the case to the sentencing court.
After the petition had been transferred to the sentencing court, it was reassigned to Judge Singleton. In May 2003, Judge Singleton denied the petition and issued an order instructing the clerk of the court to close the case and not to accept any further filings from Harrison without a certificate permitting a second or successive petition under § 2255.
In light of this certification requirement, Harrison requested authorization in this court to file a second or successive motion under § 2255. We denied the request “without prejudice to presentation оf the issues raised in this application through the filing of a 28 U.S.C. § 2241 habeas corpus petition in district court,” citing
United States v. Lorentsen,
This language in our order sent Harrison on a second round of efforts to raise his
Jones
claim. In July 2005, Harrison filed a § 2241 petition in the sentencing court, again raising his
Jones
and ineffective assistance of counsel claims. Pursuant to
Hernandez,
In March 2006, Harrison appealed this second denial of his § 2241 petition. The Ninth Circuit Appellate Commissioner subsequently remanded the case to the sentencing court for the limited purpose of granting or denying a COA under § 2253. In May 2006, the sentencing court denied Harrison’s motion requesting a COA. .The sentencing court reasoned that it had dismissed Harrison’s petition for lack of jurisdiction because Harrison “was not entitled to proceed with habeas relief under § 2241,” and no reasonable jurist could have concluded otherwise.
In a July 2006 order, we granted Harrison’s subsequent motion for leave to file an oversized request for a COA, noted his prior request for a COA, and also stated that we had not yet determined whether the COA requirement is applicable to an appeal from dismissal of a habeas petition brought in good faith under § 2241 pursuant to the savings clause of § 2255.
Therefore, we directed the parties to brief: (1) whether the COA requirement in § 2253 applied to an appeal from the denial of a § 2241 habeas petition filed by a federal prisoner challenging his conviction or sentence under the savings clause of § 2255, and (2) whether the sentencing court properly dismissed Harrison’s § 2241 habeas petition for lack of jurisdiction.
We now have before us Harrison’s Mаrch 2006 appeal from the denial of his
*958
§ 2241 petition as well as his motion requesting a COA. We have jurisdiction over the district court’s denial of a § 2241 petition pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and have jurisdiction over the request for a COA pursuant to § 2253. Fed. R.App. P. 22(b);
see Valerio v. Crawford,
II
As a threshold matter, we must determine whether we can consider Harrison’s appeal without a COA.
Where a petition purportedly brought under § 2241 is merely a “disguised” § 2255 petition, the petitioner cannot appeal from the denial of that petition without a COA.
Porter v. Adams,
However, Porter did not address the exceptional case, where the petitioner’s pleading qualifies for the escape hatch of § 2255, and can legitimately be brought as a § 2241 petition. As we noted in our July 2006 order, it is an open question in our circuit whether the COA requirement is applicable to an appeal frоm dismissal of a habeas petition brought in good faith under § 2241. Therefore, we must consider whether we can require a petitioner to obtain a COA as a condition to our exercise of jurisdiction over an appeal of the denial of a § 2241 petition that qualifies for the escape hatch of § 2255.
We see no basis for imposing such a requirement. The plain language of § 2253(c)(1) does not require a petitioner to obtain a COA in order to appeal the denial of a § 2241 petition.
Forde v. U.S. Parole Comm’n,
This conclusion raises something of a jurisdictional quandary, however. If Harrison’s petition is a disguised § 2255 motion, we lack jurisdiction to hеar it absent a COA.
Phelps v. Alameda,
Ill
We have held that a motion meets the escape hatch criteria of § 2255 “when a petitioner (1) makes a claim of actual innocence, and (2) has not had an unobstructed procedural shot at presenting that claim.”
Stephens,
Harrison argues that because he is making a claim of actual innocence, and has not had an unobstructed procedural shot at presenting that claim, the district court erred in holding that he did not qualify to bring a petition pursuant to § 2241. Harrison contends that under the Supreme Court’s interpretation of § 844(i) in Jones, the conduct for which he was convicted no longer violates the statute because the boat and van he destroyed were not used in and did not affect interstate commerce. Therefore, Harrison claims he is actually innocent. Moreover, he contends that he did not have “an unobstructed procedural shot” at presenting his claim because his claim was not available until Jones was deсided in 2000, years after Harrison’s first § 2255 motion in 1992.
The district court rejected this argument, holding that Harrison’s procedural shot was not obstructed — he could have raised the argument that the government failed to prove the interstate commerce element of § 844(i) on direct appeal. Although
Jones
had not yet been decided, the district court noted that the same issue had been raised in
United States v. Monholland,
Accordingly, the district court ruled that Harrison was not denied an unobstructed procedural shot to pursue his claim.
We agree with the district court. In determining, whether a petitioner had an unobstructed procedural shot to pursue his claim, we ask whether petitioner’s claim “did not become available” until after a federal court decision.
Stephens,
Harrison argues that the legal basis for his claim did not arise until
Jones
was decided. We disagree with this analysis, because
Jones
did not effect a material chаnge in the applicable law. The Supreme Court first construed the interstate commerce element of § 844(i) in
Russell v. United States,
Although
Jones
provided further clarification of the key words identified in
Russell,
and expressly rejected the government’s'argument that Congress intended to invoke its full authority under the Commerce Clause, it did not materially vary from the statutory construction set forth in
Russell.
The Court noted (as it had in
Russell)
that the statute “contains the qualifying words ‘used in’ a commerce-affecting activity,”
Jones,
We decided two cases interpreting the interstate cоmmerce component of § 844(i) before Harrison filed his direct appeal in 1989 and his first § 2255 motion in 1992, both of which were consistent with
Russell
and
Jones. See United States v. Andrini,
Thus, in both
Keen
and
Andrini,
we emphasized the requirement that the property at issue be “commercial” in nature. These cases, together with the Supreme Court’s decision in
Russell,
рrovided an ample basis for Harrison to argue that the government must prove a nexus between the property destroyed and an activity of commercial nature. We cannot say that Harrison’s claim “did not become available until after” the Supreme Court’s decision in
Jones. Stephens,
While
Jones
gave additional encouragement for defendants to argue that property at issue in a § 844(i) case was not “used” in interstate commerce, we cannot say such further support constitutes a
change
in the law creating a previously unavailable legal basis for petitioner’s claim.
See Ivy,
Accordingly, we conclude that Harrison cannot establish that he “has not had an unobstructed procedural shot” at presenting his clаim,
Stephens,
IV
Because Harrison has not established that his petition is a legitimate § 2241 petition brought pursuant to the escape hatch of § 2255, we do not have jurisdiction under § 2241 to hear his appeal.
See United States v. Reyes,
AFFIRMED.
Notes
. 18 U.S.C. § 844(i) states:
Whoever maliciously damages or destroys, or attempts to damage or destroy, by means of fire or an explosive, any building, vehicle, or other real or personal property used in interstate or foreign commerce or in any activity affecting interstate or foreign commerce shall be imprisoned for not less than 5 years and not more than 20 years, fined under this title, or both; and if personal injury results to any person, including any public safety officer performing duties as a direct or proximate result of conduct prohibited by this subsection, shall be imprisoned for not less than 7 years and not more than 40 years, fined under this title, or both; and if death results to any person, including any public safety officer performing duties as a direct or proximate result of conduct prohibited by this subsection, shall also be subject to imprisonment for any term of years, or to the death penalty or to life imprisonment.
. Following the federal conviction at issue in this case, Harrison was convicted in California state court of thе first degree murder of his former wife. Due to the pending sentence of federal parole, Harrison is “in custody” for purposes of the federal habeas provisions, § 2241(c) and § 2255.
See Braden v. 30th Judicial Circuit Court of Ky.,
. 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c) states:
(1) Unless a circuit justice or judge issues a certificate оf appealability, an appeal may not be taken to the court of appeals from— (A) the final order in a habeas corpus proceeding in which the detention complained *956 of arises out of process' issued by a State court; or
(B) the final order in a proceeding under section 2255.
(2) A certificate of appealability may issue under paragraph (1) only if the applicant has made a substantial showing of the denial of a constitutional right.
(3) The certificate of appealability under paragraph (1) shall indicate which specific issue or issues satisfy the showing required by paragraph (2).
. The limited exceptions to our duty to exercise our jurisdiction are inapplicable in this" situation.
See New Orleans Pub. Serv., Inc.,
. We dismiss Harrison's request for a COA as moot.
