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Page Number: 18.0

14 

BROWN v. DAVENPORT 

Opinion of the Court 

Instead, Congress left intact the equitable discretion tradi-
tionally  invested  in  federal  courts  by  preexisting  habeas 
statutes.  So even a petitioner who prevails under AEDPA 
must still today persuade a federal habeas court that “law 
and justice require” relief.  § 2243.  See Fry, 551 U. S., at 
119; Horn v. Banks, 536 U. S. 266, 272 (2002) (per curiam).
And whatever else those inquiries involve, they continue to 
require  federal  habeas  courts  to  apply  this  Court’s  prece-
dents  governing  the  appropriate  exercise  of equitable  dis-
cretion—including  Brecht.  See  Banks,  536  U. S.,  at  272; 
Johnson v. Acevedo, 572 F. 3d 398, 404 (CA7 2009); see also 
Edwards, 593 U. S., at ___, n. 5 (GORSUCH, J., concurring) 
(slip op., at 9, n. 5).

Today,  then,  a  federal  court  must  deny  relief  to  a  state 
habeas petitioner who fails to satisfy either this Court’s eq-
uitable precedents or AEDPA.  But to grant relief, a court 
must find that the petitioner has cleared both tests.  The 
Sixth Circuit erred when it held Mr. Davenport to just one 
of these burdens.  It granted relief after finding for him on 
Brecht.  But it failed to ask the further question whether he
satisfied AEDPA.  In doing so, the court disregarded Con-
gress’s instruction that habeas relief “shall not be granted” 
unless AEDPA’s terms are satisfied.  § 2254(d). 

III 
Mr. Davenport advances two arguments—one logical, one
doctrinal—in  defense  of  the  Sixth  Circuit’s  decision.    We 
consider them in turn. 

A 

Mr. Davenport first suggests the Sixth Circuit’s failure to 
discuss AEDPA amounted to no more than a forgivable pec-
cadillo.  On his account, the AEDPA inquiry represents a
logical subset of the Brecht test.  So even though the Sixth
Circuit  did  not  formally  find  that  he  satisfied  AEDPA,  it 
implicitly did so when it found his case cleared Brecht.