The Supreme Court's New Vision of Federal Habeas Corpus for State Prisoners

Abstract

If our nation's bifurcated judicial system is to be retained, as I am sure it will be, it is clear that we should strive to make both the federal and the state systems strong, independent, and viable. State courts will undoubtedly continue in the future to litigate federal constitutional questions. State judges in assuming office take an oath to support the federal as well as the state constitution. State judges do in fact rise to the occasion when given the responsibility and opportunity to do so. It is a step in the right direction to defer to the state courts and give finality to their judgments on federal constitutional questions where a full and fair adjudication has been given in the state court. Judge O'Connor singled out federal habeas corpus review of state convictions as a notable example of our system's "strange" and "imperfect" duplication of judicial time and effort. 2 Unfortunately, ac