Opinion ID: 1234716
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: aedpa error and scope of review

Text: Here is the dilemma we face: The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA), Pub.L. No. 104-132, § 104, 110 Stat. 1214, 1218-19, provides that, if a claim was adjudicated on the merits in state court proceedings, then [a]n application for a writ of habeas corpus ... shall not be granted ... unless the adjudication of the claim  (1) resulted in a decision that was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States; or (2) resulted in a decision that was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d). As we develop later, the state appellate court's decision in this case was on the merits, but was contrary to ... clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court because it applied an improper rule in determining that any constitutional error was not prejudicial. But the state Court of Appeal never addressed whether there was constitutional error in excluding Frantz from the conference regarding the jury's requests. Our case law concerning the appropriate approach under AEDPA cases like this one, in which the state court decision satisfies the § 2254(d)(1) [11] standard for the grant of habeas corpus relief but leaves a dispositive constitutional issue undecided, is murky. [12] With the aid of recent Supreme Court decisions, we begin by delineating the proper approach to federal habeas in such circumstances, with a focus on two questions: (1) Does a state court's use of the wrong legal standard meet the § 2254(d)(1) criteria even if the state court's ultimate conclusion that the conviction was constitutional may have been correct for a different reason? And (2) if so, what manner of constitutional review should follow our identification of this § 2254(d)(1) error? In section III, we return to the merits of Frantz's McKaskle claim.
We have recognized a latent confusion in our case law concerning whether, under [§ 2254(d)(1)], it is necessary or permissible for us to review the `reasoning' used by the state court, or whether we are simply to review the `decision' of that court adjudicating the merits of the petitioner's claim. Sims v. Rowland, 414 F.3d 1148, 1152 n. 2 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 546 U.S. 1066, 126 S.Ct. 809, 163 L.Ed.2d 637 (2005). It is now firmly established, however, that a decision by a state court is `contrary to' [the] clearly established law [of the Supreme Court] if it ` applies a rule that contradicts the governing law set forth in [Supreme Court] cases.' Price v. Vincent, 538 U.S. 634, 640, 123 S.Ct. 1848, 155 L.Ed.2d 877 (2003) (quoting Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 405, 120 S.Ct. 1495, 146 L.Ed.2d 389 (2000)) (emphasis added); see also Early v. Packer, 537 U.S. 3, 8, 123 S.Ct. 362, 154 L.Ed.2d 263 (2002) (per curiam) (Avoiding [a `contrary to' error] does not require citation ... [or] awareness of [Supreme Court] cases, so long as neither the reasoning nor the result of the state-court decision contradicts them. (second emphasis added)); cf. Panetti v. Quarterman, ___ U.S. ___, 127 S.Ct. 2842, 2855-58, 168 L.Ed.2d 662 (2007) (finding a § 2254(d)(1) error under the unreasonable prong because the state court unreasonably applied the Supreme Court's procedural standards for considering such claims). In other words, mistakes in reasoning or in predicate decisions of the type in question here  use of the wrong legal rule or framework  do constitute error under the contrary to prong of § 2254(d)(1). Indeed, except in the extremely rare circumstance in which a state case presents facts that are materially identical to those in a Supreme Court case, it is difficult to imagine many situations in which the result of a state court adjudication could be contrary to clearly established Supreme Court precedent. In this case, for example, asking whether the state court's ultimate denial of Frantz's McKaskle claim was contrary to established Supreme Court law is pointless, because Supreme Court law dictates only the intermediate steps of analysis. Consequently, the decision referred to in § 2254(d)(1) necessarily encompasses the conclusions of law on which the ultimate result in state court was based. See Williams, 529 U.S. at 412-13, 120 S.Ct. 1495 (Under the `contrary to' clause, a federal habeas court may grant the writ if the state court arrives at a conclusion opposite to that reached by this Court on a question of law .... (emphasis added)). With this guiding principle in mind, we return to the state court error in this case. By inquiring into prejudicial effect, the Arizona Court of Appeals conducted harmless error review of Frantz's McKaskle claim. But, contrary to the state court's assumption, Supreme Court case law establishes unequivocally that a violation of the right to self-representation recognized in Faretta v. California, 422 U.S. 806, 95 S.Ct. 2525, 45 L.Ed.2d 562 (1975), is structural and thus is not susceptible to harmless error review. [13] See McKaskle, 465 U.S. at 177 n. 8, 104 S.Ct. 944 (Since the right of self-representation is a right that when exercised usually increases the likelihood of a trial outcome unfavorable to the defendant, its denial is not amenable to `harmless error' analysis.); see generally United States v. Gonzalez-Lopez, 548 U.S. 140, 126 S.Ct. 2557, 2564, 165 L.Ed.2d 409 (2006) (surveying constitutional errors characterized as structural and not subject to harmless error analysis). Because the Arizona Court of Appeals applie[d] a rule that contradicts the governing law set forth in[Supreme Court] cases, Price, 538 U.S. at 640, 123 S.Ct. 1848 (internal quotation marks omitted), the § 2254(d)(1) standard for the grant of habeas relief is satisfied.
Having so concluded, what do we do next? Do we simply grant habeas relief? Or do we decide the constitutional issue that the state Court of Appeals did not decide: whether the exclusion of Frantz from the mid-jury-deliberations conference was unconstitutional under McKaskle? As we noted at the outset, our own cases are somewhat unclear on that point. The Supreme Court, however, has recently clarified our responsibility once we have found a state court error that satisfies § 2254(d)(1): When the requirement set forth in § 2254(d)(1) is satisfied[, a] federal court must then resolve the [constitutional] claim without the deference AEDPA otherwise requires. Panetti, 127 S.Ct. at 2858; see also Rompilla v. Beard, 545 U.S. 374, 390, 125 S.Ct. 2456, 162 L.Ed.2d 360 (2005) (reviewing the prejudice requirement for an ineffective assistance of counsel claim de novo after identifying a § 2254(d)(1) error in the state court's evaluation of the performance requirement); Wiggins v. Smith, 539 U.S. 510, 534, 123 S.Ct. 2527, 156 L.Ed.2d 471 (2003) (similar); Penry v. Johnson, 532 U.S. 782, 795, 121 S.Ct. 1910, 150 L.Ed.2d 9 (2001) (holding that even if the state court's decision was contrary to Supreme Court case law, that error would justify overturning Penry's sentence only if Penry could establish that the error was prejudicial under the pre-AEDPA standard for evaluating prejudice); Williams, 529 U.S. at 406, 120 S.Ct. 1495 (explaining that when a federal habeas court identifies a contrary to error, it will be unconstrained by § 2254(d)(1)). So it is now clear both that we may not grant habeas relief simply because of § 2254(d)(1) error and that, if there is such error, we must decide the habeas petition by considering de novo the constitutional issues raised. The Supreme Court has not fully explained, however, why that is true. We do so now, briefly, as the underlying reasoning may prove useful to habeas courts applying these principles. As the Eleventh Circuit has explained, Section 2254 presumes that federal courts already have the authority to issue the writ of habeas corpus to a state prisoner. ... [I]t is not itself a grant of habeas authority, let alone a discrete and independent source of post-conviction relief. Medberry v. Crosby, 351 F.3d 1049, 1059-60 (11th Cir.2003); see also id. at 1056-58 (explaining the evolution of § 2254). Instead, it is § 2241 that provides generally for the granting of writs of habeas corpus by federal courts, implementing the general grant of habeas authority provided by the Constitution. White v. Lambert, 370 F.3d 1002, 1006 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 543 U.S. 991, 125 S.Ct. 503, 160 L.Ed.2d 379 (2004). In turn, § 2254(d), like other subsections of § 2254, implements and limits the authority granted in § 2241 for a person in custody pursuant to the judgment of a State court. § 2254(a). See White, 370 F.3d at 1008 ([Section] 2254 is properly seen as a limitation on the general grant of habeas authority in § 2241.); see also Felker v. Turpin, 518 U.S. 651, 662, 116 S.Ct. 2333, 135 L.Ed.2d 827 (1996) (Our authority to grant habeas relief to state prisoners is limited by § 2254. ...). Just as, for example, § 2254(b) restricts our underlying § 2241 and constitutional authority by creating an exhaustion requirement, § 2254(d) establishes certain kinds of state court error as a predicate to habeas relief with respect to any claim that was adjudicated on the merits in State court. Where, as here, the limitations established by other subsections of § 2254 are satisfied, § 2254(a) sets out the general standard that must be satisfied by a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in behalf of a person in custody pursuant to the judgment of a State court: The petition must rely on the ground that he is in custody in violation of the Constitution or laws or treaties of the United States. See also § 2241(c) (extending federal courts' general habeas authority not only to prisoners in custody in violation of the Constitution or federal laws but also to several other groups of prisoners). [14] It is that more general  but still limited  provision that alone governs, where the other limitations set out in § 2254(d) (and in § 2244) are no obstacle to the grant of habeas relief. Further, the text of both § 2254(a) and § 2241(c) refers only to the substantive invalidity of the confinement under the Constitution and contains no requirement of deference to state court adjudications. Federal courts governed only by those sections, therefore, necessarily decide the issues before them de novo, as was done before AEDPA's addition of § 2254(d) in 1996. See Gratzer v. Mahoney, 397 F.3d 686, 689-90 (9th Cir.); Chizen v. Hunter, 809 F.2d 560, 561 (9th Cir.1986); cf. Fry, 127 S.Ct. at 2327 (in the context of harmless error review, concluding that when a state court has made a § 2254(d)(1) error, the pre-AEDPA habeas review standard is appropriate for a question that the state court did not reach). We caution that this analysis does not dictate either a two-stage process or any particular order of decision. For one thing, a holding on habeas review that a state court error meets the § 2254(d) standard will often simultaneously constitute a holding that the § 2254(a)/§ 2241 requirement is satisfied as well, so no second inquiry will be necessary. See, e.g., Goldyn v. Hayes, 444 F.3d 1062, 1070-71 (9th Cir.2006) (finding § 2254(d)(1) error in the state court's erroneous conclusion that the state had proved all elements of the crime); Lewis v. Lewis, 321 F.3d 824, 835 (9th Cir.2003) (finding § 2254(d)(1) error in the state court's failure to conduct a constitutionally sufficient inquiry into a defendant's jury selection challenge). In this case, however, the Arizona court's § 2254(d)(1) error  inappropriate use of harmless error review  does not tell us whether Frantz's conviction and custody were unconstitutional. Whether it was depends on whether McKaskle error occurred when Frantz, although representing himself, was excluded from the chambers conference on the jury's inquiry during deliberations. If no such error occurred then, quite obviously, the state Court of Appeal's bottom line was right  the conviction was not infected by constitutional error and should not have been reversed. In that event, we may not grant habeas relief under §§ 2241 and 2254(a). Moreover, AEDPA does not require a federal habeas court to adopt any one methodology in deciding the only question that matters under § 2254(d)(1). Lockyer v. Andrade, 538 U.S. 63, 71, 123 S.Ct. 1166, 155 L.Ed.2d 144 (2003). Nor does it require any particular methodology for ordering the § 2254(d) and § 2254(a) determination. See Inthavong v. Lamarque, 420 F.3d 1055, 1061 (9th Cir.2005). Sometimes, we may be able to decide the § 2254(d)(1) issue better by deciding the constitutional issue de novo first, when doing so would illuminate the § 2254(d)(1) analysis. See, e.g., Weeks v. Angelone, 528 U.S. 225, 120 S.Ct. 727, 145 L.Ed.2d 727 (2000). In other cases, it may make sense to address § 2254(d)(1) first. See, e.g., Panetti, 127 S.Ct. at 2858. In sum, where the analysis on federal habeas, in whatever order conducted, results in the conclusion that § 2254(d)(1) is satisfied, then federal habeas courts must review the substantive constitutionality of the state custody de novo.
Having established the appropriate mode of review once the § 2254(d)(1) standard is met, we address one additional point: Respondents suggest that, even upon de novo review, we should consider only rationales supporting the state court conviction that were ... within the contemplation of the state court. We generally agree, with some caveats. Representative of the issue that Respondents raise is Van Lynn, a case in which the state court had erroneously denied a defendant's motion for self-representation by applying the wrong standard to evaluate the defendant's competence for such representation. 347 F.3d at 741. The respondent argued that, although the state court had erroneously deemed the defendant incompetent, habeas relief was inappropriate because the court could have denied the motion on the alternative ground that it was untimely. Id. Reviewing the state's arguments, we concluded that we could not invent an alternative rationale for the state court's decision which requires application of an entirely different and unrelated legal principle ... and then ... review the trial court's decision as if it had been made pursuant to that alternative rationale. Id. (emphasis added). When we are reviewing a state court decision to decide whether there is a § 2254(d)(1) error, the conclusion that we reached in Van Lynn is undoubtedly correct. We confine our § 2254(d)(1) analysis to the state court's actual decisions and analysis. The text of § 2254(d)(1) demands this approach, by pointing us to the decision[s] that result from state courts' adjudication of ... claim[s] and the application[s] of ... law that were involved in such decisions. Consistent with the statutory text, the Supreme Court has twice cautioned federal courts to read state court decisions carefully to determine the rule that actually governed the state court's analysis. Holland v. Jackson, 542 U.S. 649, 654-55, 124 S.Ct. 2736, 159 L.Ed.2d 683 (2004) (per curiam); Woodford v. Visciotti, 537 U.S. 19, 23-24, 123 S.Ct. 357, 154 L.Ed.2d 279 (2002) (per curiam). [15] Indeed, if we were to defer to some hypothetical alternative rationale when the state court's actual reasoning evidences a § 2254(d)(1) error, we would distort the purpose of AEDPA. AEDPA plainly sought to ensure a level of `deference to the determinations of state courts.' Williams, 529 U.S. at 386, 120 S.Ct. 1495 (Stevens, J., concurring) (quoting H.R. Conf. Rep. No. 104-518, at 111 (1996), U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 1996, pp. 944, 945). Applying § 2254(d)(1) to a state court's actual analysis accords such deference. But applying the deferential standards in § 2254(d)(1) to evaluate analysis a state court did not conduct is inconsistent with AEDPA deference. Such an approach would require us to ignore rather than respect the state court's analysis, and it would effectively require us to defer to states in their role as respondents in habeas actions rather than as independent adjudicators. Such a presumption in favor of a state party is distinct in both purpose and effect from respect afforded to state courts. Our approach is not quite so straightforward, however, when we are reviewing legal questions without AEDPA deference. Unlike § 2254(d)(1) analysis, § 2254(a) review will often require consideration of legal arguments not addressed by the state court in its opinion. In this case, for example, we must consider the McKaskle question that the state court avoided and, in doing so, we consider the alternative rationale advanced by the respondents for affirming the Arizona court's decision. Nevertheless, even on § 2241 de novo review, we would reject an alternative and unrelated legal argument of the type advanced by the respondent in Van Lynn. As with any de novo review, our § 2241 review is confined to the alleged wrong and the actual course of events at trial and on appeal. We cannot invent a constitutional sequence of events to justify that which simply did not happen. Cf. Hirschfield v. Payne, 420 F.3d 922, 928-29 (9th Cir.2005) (holding that the federal court could not consider under § 2254(d)(1) a rationale offered by the state for the trial court's denial of the petitioner's motion for self-representation when that rationale would have constituted a discretionary denial of the motion). Moreover, when the constitutional right itself is tied to the reasons for a trial court's decision, see, e.g., Van Lynn, 347 F.3d at 740 (discussing the Supreme Court's guidance on the reasons why a trial court can deny a criminal defendant's motion for self representation), even on de novo review we must focus on the trial court's reasoning to determine whether a constitutional violation occurred. We need not elaborate further today on the precise line between those undecided issues that we will address on de novo consideration of constitutional issues and those that we will not. Here, the undecided issue was the logical predicate to the one that was decided in the state Court of Appeals, and was decided, albeit on a procedurally improper factual basis, by the state trial court. And the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly considered such inherently linked issues de novo on habeas once the § 2254(d)(1) requirement is met. In sum, then, we hold the following: To identify a § 2254(d)(1) contrary to error, we analyze the court's actual reasoning, to the extent that the Supreme Court has dictated how a state court's reasoning should proceed. Identification of such an error is not the end of a federal habeas court's analysis, however, unless that identification necessarily means that the state court's determination of the ultimate constitutional or legal question is also wrong. Instead, pursuant to § 2254(a) and pre-AEDPA standards of review, we must also evaluate de novo the petitioner's constitutional claims, without limiting ourselves to the reasoning of the state court.