Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/529bv.pdf
Page Number: 558

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Unit: $U50

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Cite as: 529 U. S. 473 (2000)

483

Opinion of the Court

III

As AEDPA applied, the Court of Appeals should have
treated the notice of appeal as an application for a COA.
Fed. Rule App. Proc. 22(b); Fed. Rule Civ. Proc. 8(f); see
also Hohn, supra, at 240. To evaluate whether the Court of
Appeals should have granted a COA, we must determine
what the habeas applicant must show to satisfy the require-
ments of § 2253(c).

Citing § 2253(c)’s requirement that a COA may issue only
upon the “substantial showing of the denial of a constitu-
tional right,” the State contends that no appeal can be taken
if the District Court relies on procedural grounds to dismiss
the petition. According to the State, only constitutional rul-
ings may be appealed. Under this view, a state prisoner
who can demonstrate he was convicted in violation of the
Constitution and who can demonstrate that the district court
was wrong to dismiss the petition on procedural grounds
would be denied relief. We reject this interpretation. The
writ of habeas corpus plays a vital role in protecting consti-
tutional rights.
In setting forth the preconditions for issu-
ance of a COA under § 2253(c), Congress expressed no inten-
tion to allow trial court procedural error to bar vindication
of substantial constitutional rights on appeal.

Our conclusion follows from AEDPA’s present provisions,
which incorporate earlier habeas corpus principles. Under
AEDPA, a COA may not issue unless “the applicant has
made a substantial showing of the denial of a constitutional
28 U. S. C. § 2253(c) (1994 ed., Supp. III). Except
right.”
for substituting the word “constitutional” for the word “fed-
eral,” § 2253 is a codiﬁcation of the CPC standard announced
in Barefoot v. Estelle, 463 U. S., at 894. Congress had before
it the meaning Barefoot had given to the words it selected;
and we give the language found in § 2253(c) the meaning
ascribed it in Barefoot, with due note for the substitution
of the word “constitutional.” See Williams v. Taylor, ante,
at 434. To obtain a COA under § 2253(c), a habeas prisoner