Opinion ID: 786604
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Procedural Default Component of the PLRA

Text: 29 The Supreme Court has observed in the federal habeas corpus context that an exhaustion requirement without a procedural default component is quite toothless. To protect the integrity of the federal exhaustion rule, [federal habeas courts] ask not only whether a prisoner has exhausted his state remedies, but also whether he has properly exhausted those remedies, i.e., whether he has fairly presented his claims to the state courts. O'Sullivan v. Boerckel, 526 U.S. 838, 848, 119 S.Ct. 1728, 144 L.Ed.2d 1 (1999) (quotation marks and citations omitted) (emphasis in original). 30 [A] habeas petitioner who has failed to meet the State's procedural requirements for presenting his federal claims has deprived the state courts of an opportunity to address those claims in the first instance. A habeas petitioner who has defaulted his federal claims in state court meets the technical requirements for exhaustion; there are no state remedies any longer available to him. In the absence of the independent and adequate state ground doctrine in federal habeas, habeas petitioners would be able to avoid the exhaustion requirement by defaulting their federal claims in state court. 31 Coleman v. Thompson, 501 U.S. 722, 732, 111 S.Ct. 2546, 115 L.Ed.2d 640 (1991) (citing 28 U.S.C. § 2254(b); Engle v. Isaac, 456 U.S. 107, 125-26, n. 28, 102 S.Ct. 1558, 71 L.Ed.2d 783 (1982)). 32 The value of a procedural default rule for enforcing an exhaustion requirement is obvious. For example, both state criminal processes and prison administrative grievance systems normally include time bars; without the backstop of a procedural default rule, an aggrieved prisoner could evade § 1997e(a)'s exhaustion requirement by simply letting the time to present his grievance expire, and a habeas petitioner could likewise evade 28 U.S.C. § 2254(b)'s exhaustion requirement by not timely appealing within the state court system. There are many other points at which an aggrieved prisoner or a habeas petitioner could similarly deprive the prison grievance system or state court system, respectively, of the opportunity to fairly consider his claim. 33 The analogy is far from perfect, though. For one thing, the Supreme Court has consistently located the procedural default component of federal habeas law in the independent and adequate state ground doctrine, see, e.g., Lee v. Kemna, 534 U.S. 362, 375, 122 S.Ct. 877, 151 L.Ed.2d 820 (2002); Coleman, 501 U.S. at 729, 111 S.Ct. 2546, a doctrine that, in the habeas context at least, is grounded in concerns of comity and federalism, id. at 730, 111 S.Ct. 2546; see also Edwards v. Carpenter, 529 U.S. 446, 453, 120 S.Ct. 1587, 146 L.Ed.2d 518 (2000); Lambrix v. Singletary, 520 U.S. 518, 523, 117 S.Ct. 1517, 137 L.Ed.2d 771 (1997). It is at least possible that the comity-and-federalism rationale (and hence the independent and adequate state ground rule) applies with greater force to defaults in state judicial proceedings than it does to defaults in state administrative proceedings. Another problem with uncritically importing principles from federal habeas doctrine into this context is that in other federal statutory schemes-most prominently, employment discrimination claims under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA)-the Supreme Court has not interpreted an exhaustion-like requirement to imply a procedural default component. 8 34 The competing analogies of federal habeas corpus and federal civil rights law are developed in greater detail in the majority and dissenting opinions in the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit's opinion on the same exhaustion question we consider here. See Thomas, 337 F.3d 720 (Moore, J.); id. at 737 (Rosen, J., dissenting in part and concurring in the judgment). Suffice it to say that we find neither position entirely satisfactory. But the foregoing discussion at least suggests that an exhaustion rule can (though need not) be fairly read to include a procedural default component. Therefore, the best course, we think, is to examine Congress's policy objectives in enacting § 1997e(a), and to evaluate whether those are better served by a procedural default rule, or the absence of one. 35 We believe that Congress's policy objectives will be served by interpreting § 1997e(a)'s exhaustion requirement to include a procedural default component. Based on our earlier discussion of the PLRA's legislative history, see supra Part III.B, Congress seems to have had three interrelated objectives relevant to our inquiry here: (1) to return control of the inmate grievance process to prison administrators; (2) to encourage development of an administrative record, and perhaps settlements, within the inmate grievance process; and (3) to reduce the burden on the federal courts by erecting barriers to frivolous prisoner lawsuits. Each of these goals is better served by interpreting § 1997e(a)'s exhaustion language to include a procedural default component than by interpreting it merely to require termination of all administrative grievance proceedings. 36 All three goals are obviously served by a procedural default rule because such a rule prevents an end-run around the exhaustion requirement, and thereby creates an overwhelming incentive for a prisoner to pursue his claims to the fullest within the administrative grievance system. There are subtler benefits too: A procedural default rule enhances the integrity of prison administration because it ensures prisoner compliance with the specific requirements of the grievance system. A procedural default rule ensures that an administrative record will be developed in the best fashion (i.e., under a grievance system designed to create just such a record), and that the possibility of settlement will be explored within a framework where prison administrators will be receptive to settlement. Finally, Congress wanted to erect any barrier it could to suits by prisoners in federal court, and a procedural default rule surely reduces caseloads (even though it may be a blunt instrument for doing so).