# Braden v. 30th Judicial Circuit Court of Kentucky/Opinion of the Court

* Court Documents
* Case Syllabus
* Opinion of the Court
* Concurring Opinion Blackmun
* Dissenting Opinion Rehnquist
[p485] MR. JUSTICE BRENNAN delivered the opinion of the Court.
Petitioner is presently serving a sentence in an Alabama prison. He applied to the District Court for the Western District of Kentucky for a writ of federal habeas corpus, alleging denial of his constitutional right to a speedy trial, Smith v. Hooey, 393 U.S. 374 (1969), and praying that an order issue directing respondent to afford him an immediate trial on a then three-year-old Kentucky indictment. We are to consider whether, as petitioner was not physically present within the territorial limits of the District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, the provision of 28 U.S.C. § 2241 (a) that "[w]rits of habeas corpus may be granted by the... district courts... within their respective jurisdictions" (emphasis supplied), precluded the District Court from [p486] entertaining petitioner's application. The District Court held that the section did not bar its determination of the application. The court held further that petitioner had been denied a speedy trial and ordered respondent either to secure his presence in Kentucky for trial within 60 days or to dismiss the indictment. The Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed on the ground that "the habeas corpus jurisdiction conferred on the federal courts by 28 U.S.C. § 2241 (a) is 'limited to petitions filed by persons physically present within the territorial limits of the District Court.'" 454 F.2d 145, 146 (1972). We granted certiorari. 407 U.S. 909 (1972). We reverse.

## I

On July 31, 1967, the grand jury of the Jefferson County Circuit Court (30th Judicial Circuit of Kentucky) indicted petitioner on one count of storehouse breaking and one count of safebreaking. At the time of the indictment, petitioner was in custody in California, and he was returned to Kentucky to stand trial on the indictment. But on November 13, 1967, he escaped from the custody of Kentucky officials and remained at large until his arrest in Alabama on February 24, 1968. Petitioner was convicted of certain unspecified felonies in the Alabama state courts, and was sentenced to the Alabama state prison, where he was confined when he filed this action.
The validity of petitioner's conviction on the Alabama felonies is not at issue here, just as it was not at issue before the District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. Nor does petitioner challenge the "present effect being given the [Kentucky] detainer by the [Alabama] authorities...." Nelson v. George, 399 U.S. 224, 225 (1970). He attacks, rather, the validity of the [p487] Kentucky indictment which underlies the detainer lodged against him by officials of that State.
In a pro se application for habeas corpus relief to the Federal District Court in the Western District of Kentucky, petitioner alleged that he had made repeated demands for a speedy trial on the Kentucky indictment, that he had been denied his right to a speedy trial, that further delay in trial would impair his ability to defend himself, and that the existence of the Kentucky indictment adversely affected his condition of confinement in Alabama by prejudicing his opportunity for parole. In response to an order to show cause, respondent argued that the District Court lacked jurisdiction because the petitioner was not confined within the district. Respondent added that "petitioner in the case at bar may challenge the legality of any of the adverse effects of any Kentucky detainer against him in Alabama by habeas corpus in the Alabama Federal District Court." App. 6-7. The District Court held, citing Smith v. Hooey, 393 U.S. 374 (1969), that Kentucky must "attempt to effect the return of a prisoner from a foreign jurisdiction for trial on pending state charges when such prisoner so demands.... Since it is the State of Kentucky which must take action, it follows that jurisdiction rests in this district which has jurisdiction over the necessary state officials." App. 9.
Under the constraint of its earlier decision, the Court of Appeals reversed but stated that it "reach[ed] this conclusion reluctantly" because of the possibility that the decision would "result in Braden's inability to find a forum in which to assert his constitutional right to a speedy trial—a right which he is legally entitled to assert at this time under Peyton v. Rowe, 391 U.S. 54 [p488] (1968). This is a possibility because the rule in the Fifth Circuit, where [Braden] is incarcerated, appears to be that a district court in the state that has filed the detainer is the proper forum in which to file the petition. See May v. Georgia, 409 F.2d 203 (5th Cir. 1969). See also Rodgers v. Louisiana, 418 F.2d 237 (5th Cir. 1969). Braden thus may find himself ensnared in what has aptly been termed 'Catch 2254'—unable to vindicate his constitutional rights in either of the only two states that could possibly afford a remedy. See Tuttle, Catch 2254: Federal Jurisdiction and Interstate Detainers, 32 U.Pitt. L. Rev. 489, 502-03 (1971)." 454 F.2d, at 146-147.

## II

We granted certiorari to resolve a sharp conflict among the federal courts on the choice of forum where a prisoner attacks an interstate detainer on federal habeas corpus. Before turning to that question, we must make clear that petitioner is entitled to raise his speedy trial claim on federal habeas corpus at this time. First, he is currently "in custody" within the meaning of the federal habeas corpus statute, 28 U.S.C. § 2241 (c)(3). Prior to our decision in Peyton v. Rowe, 391 U.S. 54 (1968), the "prematurity doctrine" of McNally v. Hill, 293 U.S. 131 (1934), would, of course, have barred his petition for relief. But our decision in Peyton v. Rowe discarded the prematurity doctrine, which had permitted [p489] a prisoner to attack on habeas corpus only his current confinement, and not confinement that would be imposed in the future, and opened the door to this action.
Second, petitioner has exhausted all available state remedies as a prelude to this action. It is true, of course, that he has not yet been tried on the Kentucky indictment, and he can assert a speedy trial defense when, and if, he is finally brought to trial. It is also true, as our Brother REHNQUIST points out in dissent, that federal habeas corpus does not lie, absent "special circumstances," to adjudicate the merits of an affirmative defense to a state criminal charge prior to a judgment of conviction by a state court. Ex parte Royall, 117 U.S. 241, 253 (1886). Petitioner does not, however, seek at this time to litigate a federal defense to a criminal charge, but only [p490] to demand enforcement of the Commonwealth's affirmative constitutional obligation to bring him promptly to trial. Smith v. Hooey, 393 U.S. 374 (1969). He has made repeated demands for trial to the courts of Kentucky, offering those courts an opportunity to consider on the merits his constitutional claim of the present denial of a speedy trial. Under these circumstances it is clear that he has exhausted all available state court remedies for consideration of that constitutional claim, even though Kentucky has not yet brought him to trial.
The exhaustion doctrine is a judicially crafted instrument which reflects a careful balance between important interests of federalism and the need to preserve the writ of habeas corpus as a "swift and imperative remedy in all cases of illegal restraint for confinement." Secretary of State for Home Affairs v. O'Brien, [1923] A.C. 603, 609 (H.L.). It cannot be used as a blunderbuss to shatter the attempt at litigation of constitutional claims without regard to the purposes that underlie the doctrine and that called it into existence. As applied in our earlier decisions, the doctrine
   "preserves the role of the state courts in the application and enforcement of federal law. Early federal intervention in state criminal proceedings would tend to remove federal questions from the state courts, isolate those courts from constitutional issues, and thereby remove their understanding of and hospitality to federally protected interests. Second, [the doctrine] preserves orderly administration of state judicial business, preventing the interruption of state adjudication by federal habeas proceedings. It is important that petitioners reach state appellate courts, which can develop and correct errors of state and federal law and most effectively supervise and [p491] impose uniformity on trial courts." Note, Developments in the Law—Federal Habeas Corpus, 83 Harv. L. Rev. 1038, 1094 (1970).
See Darr v. Burford, 339 U.S. 200, 204-206 (1950), and the case which overruled it, Fay v. Noia, 372 U.S. 391, 417-420 (1963). See also Ex parte Royall, supra, at 251-252; Ex parte Hawk, 321 U.S. 114 (1944); cf. Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37 (1971); Stefanelli v. Minard, 342 U.S. 117 (1951).
The fundamental interests underlying the exhaustion doctrine have been fully satisfied in petitioner's situation. He has already presented his federal constitutional claim of a present denial of a speedy trial to the courts of Kentucky. The state courts rejected the claim, apparently on the ground that since he had once escaped from custody the Commonwealth should not be obligated to incur the risk of another escape by returning him for trial. Petitioner exhausted all available state court opportunities to establish his position that the prior escape did not obviate the Commonwealth's duty under Smith v. Hooey, supra. Moreover, petitioner made no effort to abort a state proceeding or to disrupt the orderly functioning of state judicial processes. He comes to federal court, not in an effort to forestall a state prosecution, but to enforce the Commonwealth's obligation to provide him with a state court forum. He delayed his application for federal relief until the state courts had conclusively determined that his prosecution was temporarily moribund. Since petitioner began serving the second of two 10-year Alabama sentences in March 1972, the revival of the prosecution may be delayed until as late as 1982. A federal habeas corpus action at this time and under these circumstances [p492] does not jeopardize any legitimate interest of federalism. Respondent apparently shares that view since it specifically concedes that petitioner has exhausted all available state remedies, Tr. of Oral Arg. 41.
In the case before us, the Court of Appeals held—not surprisingly, in view of the considerations discussed above—that even though petitioner had chosen the wrong forum, his speedy trial claim was one "which he is legally entitled to assert at this time under Peyton v. Rowe, 391 U.S. 54 (1968)." 454 F.2d, at 146. And the District Court, which upheld on the merits petitioner's speedy [p493] trial claim, necessarily adopted that view. Indeed, the great majority of lower federal courts which have considered the question since Smith v. Hooey, supra, have reached this same, and indisputably correct, conclusion.
We emphasize that nothing we have said would permit the derailment of a pending state proceeding by an attempt to litigate constitutional defenses prematurely in federal court. The contention in dissent that our decision converts federal habeas corpus into "a pretrial-motion forum for state prisoners," wholly misapprehends today's holding.

## III

Accordingly, we turn to the determination of the forum in which the petition for habeas corpus should be brought. In terms of traditional venue considerations, the District Court for the Western District of Kentucky is almost surely the most desirable forum for the adjudication of the claim. It is in Kentucky, where all of the material events took place, that the records and witnesses pertinent [p494] to petitioner's claim are likely to be found. And that forum is presumably no less convenient for the respondent and the Commonwealth of Kentucky, than for the petitioner. The expense and risk of transporting the petitioner to the Western District of Kentucky, should his presence at a hearing prove necessary, would in all likelihood be outweighed by the difficulties of transporting records and witnesses from Kentucky to the district where petitioner is confined. Indeed, respondent makes clear that "on balance, it would appear simpler and less expensive for the State of Kentucky to litigate such questions [as those involved in this case] in one of its own Federal judicial districts." Brief for Respondent 6.
But respondent insists that however the balance of convenient might be struck with reference to the question of venue, the choice of forum is rigidly and jurisdictionally controlled by the provision of § 2241 (a) that "[w]rits of habeas corpus may be granted by the Supreme Court, any justice thereof, the district courts and any circuit judge within their respective jurisdictions." 28 U.S.C. § 2241 (a) (emphasis supplied). Relying on our decision in Ahrens v. Clark, 335 U.S. 188 (1948), respondent contends—and the Court of Appeals held—that the italicized words limit a District Court's habeas corpus jurisdiction to cases where the prisoner seeking relief is confined within its territorial jurisdiction. Since that interpretation is not compelled either by the language of the statute or by the decision in Ahrens, and since it is fundamentally at odds with the purposes of the statutory scheme, we cannot agree.
The writ of habeas corpus does not act upon the prisoner who seeks relief, but upon the person who holds [p495] him in what is alleged to be unlawful custody. Wales v. Whitney, 114 U.S. 564, 574 (1885). In the classic statement:
   "The important fact to be observed in regard to the mode of procedure upon this writ is, that it is directed to, and served upon, not the person confined, but his jailer. It does not reach the former except through the latter. The officer or person who serves it does not unbar the prison doors, and set the prisoner free, but the court relieves him by compelling the oppressor to release his constraint. The whole force of the writ is spent upon the respondent." In the Matter of Jackson, 15 Mich. 417, 439-440 (1867), quoted with approval in Ex parte Endo, 323 U.S. 283, 306 (1944).
See also Ahrens v. Clark, 335 U.S., at 196-197 (Rutledge, J., dissenting).
Read literally, the language of § 2241 (a) requires nothing more than that the court issuing the writ have jurisdiction over the custodian. So long as the custodian can be reached by service of process, the court can issue a writ "within its jurisdiction" requiring that the prisoner be brought before the court for a hearing on his claim, or requiring that he be released outright from custody, even if the prisoner himself is confined outside the court's territorial jurisdiction.
Nevertheless, there is language in our opinion in Ahrens v. Clark, supra, indicating that the prisoner's presence within the territorial confines of the district is an invariable prerequisite to the exercise of the District Court's habeas corpus jurisdiction. In Ahrens, 120 German nationals confined at Ellis Island, New York, pending deportation sought habeas corpus on the principal ground that the removal orders exceeded the President's statutory authority under the Alien Enemy Act of 1798. [p496] They filed their petitions in the District Court for the District of Columbia, naming as respondent the Attorney General of the United States. Construing the statutory predecessor to § 2241 (a), we held that the phrase, "within their respective jurisdictions," precluded the District Court for the District of Columbia from inquiring into the validity of the prisoners' detention at Ellis Island, and we therefore affirmed the dismissal of the petitions on jurisdictional grounds.
Our decision in Ahrens rested on the view that Congress' paramount concern was the risk and expense attendant to the "production of prisoners from remote sections, perhaps thousands of miles from the District Court that issued the writ. The opportunities for escape afforded by travel, the cost of transportation, the administrative burden of such an undertaking negate such a purpose." 335 U.S., at 191. And we found support for that assumption in the legislative history of the Act. During the course of Senate debate on the habeas corpus statute of 1867, the bill was criticized on the ground that it would permit "a district judge in Florida to bring before him some men convicted and sentenced and held under imprisonment in the State of Vermont or in any of the further States." Cong. Globe, 39th Cong., 2d Sess., 730. Senator Trumbull, sponsor of the bill, met the objection with an amendment adding the words, "within their respective jurisdictions," as a circumscription of the power of the district courts to issue the writ.
[p497] But developments since Ahrens have had a profound impact on the continuing vitality of that decision. First, in the course of overruling the application of Ahrens to the ordinary case where a prisoner attacks the conviction and sentence of a federal or state court, Congress has indicated that a number of the premises which were thought to require that decision are untenable. A 1950 amendment to the habeas corpus statute requires that a collateral attack on a federal sentence be brought in the sentencing court rather than the district where the prisoner is confined. 28 U.S.C. § 2255. Similarly, a prisoner contesting a conviction and sentence of a state court of a State which contains two or more federal judicial districts, who is confined in a district within the State other than that in which the sentencing court is located, has the option of seeking habeas corpus either in the district where he is confined or the district where the sentencing court is located. 28 U.S.C. § 2241 (d). In enacting these amendments, Congress explicitly recognized the substantial advantages of having these cases resolved in the court which originally imposed the confinement or in the court located nearest the site of the underlying controversy. And Congress has further [p498] challenged the theoretical underpinnings of the decision by codifying in the habeas corpus statute a procedure we sanctioned in Walker v. Johnston, 312 U.S. 275, 284 (1941), whereby a petition for habeas corpus can in many instances be resolved without requiring the presence of the petitioner before the court that adjudicates his claim. 28 U.S.C. § 2243. See also United States v. Hayman, 342 U.S. 205, 222-223 (1952).
This Court, too, has undercut some of the premises of the Ahrens decision. Where American citizens confined overseas (and thus outside the territory of any district court) have sought relief in habeas corpus, we have held, if only implicitly, that the petitioners' absence from the district does not present a jurisdictional obstacle to the consideration of the claim. Burns v. Wilson, 346 U.S. 137 (1953), rehearing denied, 346 U.S. 844, 851-852 (opinion of Frankfurter, J.); cf. Toth v. Quarles, 350 U.S. 11 (1955); Hirota v. MacArthur, 338 U.S. 197, 199 (1948) (DOUGLAS, J., concurring (1949)).
A further, critical development since our decision in Ahrens is the emergence of new classes of prisoners who are able to petition for habeas corpus because of the adoption of a more expensive definition of the "custody" requirement of the habeas statute. See Peyton v. Rowe, 391 U.S. 54 (1968); Carafas v. LaVallee, 391 U.S. 234 (1968); Jones v. Cunningham, 371 U.S. 236 (1963). The overruling of McNally v. Hill, 293 U.S. 131 (1934), made it possible for prisoners in custody under one sentence to attack a sentence which they had not yet begun to serve. And it also enabled a petitioner held in one State to attack a detainer lodged against him by another State. In such a case, the State holding the prisoner in immediate confinement acts as agent for the demanding [p499] State, and the custodian State is presumably indifferent to the resolution of prisoner's attack on the detainer. Here, for example, the petitioner is confined in Alabama, but his dispute is with the Commonwealth of Kentucky, not the State of Alabama. Under these circumstances it would serve no useful purpose to apply the Ahrens rule and require that the action be brought in Alabama. In fact, a slavish application of the rule would jar with the very purpose underlying the addition of the phrase, "within their respective jurisdictions." We cannot assume that Congress intended to require the Commonwealth of Kentucky to defend its action in a distant State and to preclude the resolution of the dispute by a federal judge familiar with the laws and practices of Kentucky. See United States ex rel. Meadows v. New York, 426 F.2d 1176, 1181 (CA2 1970); Word v. North Carolina, 406 F.2d 352 (CA4 1969).

## IV

In view of these developments since Ahrens v. Clark, we can no longer view that decision as establishing an [p500] inflexible jurisdictional rule, dictating the choice of an inconvenient forum even in a class of cases which could not have been foreseen at the time of our decision. Of course, in many instances the district in which petitioners are held will be the most convenient forum for the litigation of their claims. On the facts of Ahrens itself, for example, petitioners could have challenged their detention by bringing an action in the Eastern District of New York against the federal officials who confined them in that district. No reason is apparent why the District of Columbia would have been a more convenient forum, or why the Government should have undertaken the burden of transporting 120 detainees to a hearing in the District of Columbia. Under these circumstances, traditional principles of venue would have mandated the bringing of the action in the Eastern District of New York, rather than the District of Columbia. Ahrens v. Clark stands for no broader proposition.
Since the petitioner's absence from the Western District of Kentucky did not deprive the court of jurisdiction, and since the respondent was properly served in that district, see Strait v. Laird, 406 U.S. 341 (1972); Schlanger v. Seamans, 401 U.S. 487 (1971), the court below erred in ordering the dismissal of the petition on jurisdictional grounds. The judgment of the Court of [p501] Appeals is reversed and the case is remanded for proceedings consistent with this opinion.
Reversed and remanded.

## Notes

* ↑ White v. Tennessee, 447 F.2d 1354 (CA6 1971).
* ↑ Compare United States ex rel. Meadows v. New York, 426 F.2d 1176 (CA2 1970), and Word v. North Carolina, 406 F.2d 352 (CA4 1969) (proper forum is in the demanding State), with United States ex rel. Van Scoten v. Pennsylvania, 404 F.2d 767 (CA3 1968), Ashley v. Washington, 394 F.2d 125 (CA9 1968), and Booker v. Arkansas, 380 F.2d 240 (CA8 1967) (proper forum is in the State of confinement).
* ↑ See generally Note, Developments in the Law—Federal Habeas Corpus, 83 Harv. L. Rev. 1038, 1087-1093 (1970).
* ↑ In Smith v. Hooey, 393 U.S. 374 (1969), we considered a speedy trial claim similar to the one presented in the case before us, and we held that a State which had lodged a detainer against a petitioner in another State must, on the prisoner's demand, "make a diligent, good-faith effort" to bring the prisoner to trial. Id., at 383. But that case arose on direct review of the denial of relief by the state court, and we had no occasion to consider whether the same or similar claims could have been raised on federal habeas corpus. Yet it logically follows from Peyton v. Rowe, 391 U.S. 54 (1968), that the claims can be raised on collateral attack. In this context, as opposed to the situation presented in Peyton, the "future custody" under attack will not be imposed by the same sovereign which holds the petitioner in his current confinement. Nevertheless, the considerations which were held in Peyton to warrant a prompt resolution of the claim also apply with full force in this context. 391 U.S., at 63-64. See United States ex rel. Meadows v. New York, supra, at 1179. Word v. North Carolina, supra, at 353-355. Since the Alabama warden acts here as the agent of the Commonwealth of Kentucky in holding the petitioner pursuant to the Kentucky detainer, we have no difficulty concluding that petitioner is "in custody" for purposes of 28 U.S.C. § 2241 (c)(3). On the facts of this case, we need not decide whether, if no detainer had been issued against him, petitioner would be sufficiently "in custody" to attack the Kentucky indictment by an action in habeas corpus.
* ↑ Cf. Baker v. Grice, 169 U.S. 284 (1898), where this Court held that a petitioner for a writ of habeas corpus had failed to exhaust state court remedies. In rejecting each of the grounds relied on by the federal court below in concluding that special circumstances warranted that court's immediate intervention, this Court stated: "It is also said that since the trial of Hathaway and the granting of a new trial to him the case of the petitioner [Grice] has not been called for trial, and that two terms of court since the granting of a new trial to Hathaway had come and the second one was about expiring at the time when the petitioner filed his petition in the Circuit Court for this writ. Here, again, there is no allegation and no proof that any attempt had been made on the part of this petitioner to obtain a trial in the state court or that he had been refused such trial by that court upon any application which he made. It is the simple case of a failure to call the indictment for trial, the petitioner being in the meantime on bail and making no effort to obtain a trial and evincing no desire by way of a demand that a trial in his case should be had. "We do not say that a refusal to try a person who is on bail can furnish any foundation for a resort to the Federal courts, even in cases in which a trial may involve Federal questions, but in this case no refusal is shown. A mere omission to move the case for trial (the party being on bail) is all that is set up, coupled with the assertion that defendant was eager and anxious for trial, but showing no action whatever on his part which might render such anxiety and eagerness known to the state authorities." Id., at 292-293. Cf. Young v. Ragen, 337 U.S. 235, 238-239 (1949); Marino v. Ragen, 332 U.S. 561, 563-570 (1947) (Rutledge, J., concurring).
* ↑ See Chauncey v. Second Judicial District Court, 453 F.2d 389, 390 n. 1 (CA9 1971); Beck v. United States, 442 F.2d 1037 (CA5 1971); Kane v. Virginia, 419 F. 2d 1369 (CA4 1970); May v. Georgia, 409 F.2d 203 (CA5 1969); White v. Coleman, 341 F.Supp. 272, 274 (WD Ky. 1971) (dictum); United States ex rel. Pitts v. Rundle, 325 F.Supp. 480 (ED Pa. 1971) (dictum); Williams v. Pennsylvania, 315 F.Supp. 1261 (WD Mo. 1970) (dictum); Varallo v. Ohio, 312 F.Supp. 45 (ED Tex. 1970) (dictum); Campbell v. Smith, 308 F.Supp. 796 (SD Ga. 1970); Piper v. United States, 306 F.Supp. 1259 (Conn. 1969) (dictum); United States ex rel. White v. Hocker, 306 F.Supp. 485 (Nev. 1969). But see Lawrence v. Blackwell, 298 F.Supp. 708 (ND Ga. 1969); Carnage v. Sanborn, 304 F.Supp. 857 (ND Ga. 1969); Kirk v. Oklahoma, 300 F.Supp. 453 (WD Okla. 1969) (alternative holding).
* ↑ See United States v. Hayman, 342 U.S. 205 (1952), discussing the legislative history of 28 U.S.C. § 2255; S. Rep. No. 1502, 89th Cong., 2d Sess., 2 (1966), discussing 28 U.S.C. § 2241 (d); Uniform Post-Conviction Procedure Act § 3; American Bar Association Project on Standards for Criminal Justice, Post-Conviction Remedies § 1.4, p. 28 (approved draft 1968); Note, Developments in the Law—Federal Habeas Corpus, 83 Harv. L. Rev. 1038, 1161 (1970).
* ↑ S. Rep. No. 1526, 80th Cong., 2d Sess., 3 (1948).
* ↑ But see Fairman, Some New Problems of the Constitution Following the Flag, 1 Stan. L. Rev. 587, 633-640 (1949).
* ↑ Act of Feb. 5, 1867, 14 Stat. 385.
* ↑ As passed, the statute provided: "That the several courts of the United States, and the several justices and judges of such courts, within their respective jurisdictions... shall have power to grant writs of habeas corpus...." 14 Stat. 385.
* ↑ The amendment was adopted in 1966.
* ↑ See H.R. Rep. No. 1894, 89th Cong., 2d Sess. (1966); S. Rep. No. 1502, 89th Cong., 2d Sess. (1966) (legislative history of amendments to 28 U.S.C. § 2241 (d)); United States v. Hayman, 342 U.S. 205 (1952) (discussing legislative history of 28 U.S.C. § 2255). Of course, these amendments were not motivated solely by a desire to insure that the disputes could be resolved in the most convenient forum. It was also a critical part of the congressional purpose to avoid the vastly disproportionate burden of handling habeas corpus petitions which had fallen, prior to the amendments, on those districts in which large numbers of prisoners are confined.
* ↑ See Note, Developments in the Law—Federal Habeas Corpus, 83 Harv. L. Rev. 1038, 1189-1191 (1970).
* ↑ Nothing in this opinion should be taken to preclude the exercise of concurrent habeas corpus jurisdiction over the petitioner's claim by a federal district court in the district of confinement. But as we have made clear above, that forum will not in the ordinary case prove as convenient as the district court in the State which has lodged the detainer. Where a prisoner brings an action in the dis- trict of confinement attacking a detainer lodged by another State, the court can, of course, transfer the suit to a more convenient forum. 28 U.S.C. § 1404 (a). Hoffman v. Blaski, 363 U.S. 335 (1960).
* ↑ Obviously, since petitioner could not have presented his habeas corpus claim prior to our 1968 decision in Peyton v. Rowe, supra, and since the choice-of-forum provisions in the habeas corpus stat- ute were most recently amended in 1966, see n. 13, supra, we can hardly draw any inference from the fact that the amendment did not specifically overrule Ahrens with respect to the type of case now before us.
* ↑ In Nelson v. George, 399 U.S. 224, 228 n. 5 (1970), we adverted to, but reserved judgment on, the precise question at issue here. We did point out, however, that the "obvious, logical, and practical solution is an amendment to § 2241 to remedy the shortcoming that has become apparent following the holding in Peyton v. Rowe. Sound judicial administration calls for such an amendment." We note that an amendment to § 2241 drafted by the Administrative Conference of the United States Courts was introduced during the 92d Congress, but no action was taken upon it.