Opinion ID: 746262
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Governing Statute

Text: 5 When this case was argued, the circuit had decided in Lindh v. Murphy, 96 F.3d 856 (7th Cir.1996) (en banc), that the amendments made by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA) to the federal habeas statutes, specifically to chapter 153 of Title 28, applied to cases pending on the date of enactment. We therefore asked that the amicus in this case brief and argue whether the grant of a limited certificate of appealability by the district court constrained the scope of our appellate review under the statute. While this case has been under submission, the Supreme Court of the United States reversed this court's determination in Lindh. The Court instead held that the statute reveals Congress' intent to apply the amendments to chapter 153 only to such cases as were filed after the statute's enactment. Lindh v. Murphy, --- U.S. ----, ----, 117 S.Ct. 2059, 2063, 138 L.Ed.2d 481 (1997). 6 The petitioner filed his petition for a writ of habeas corpus on November 13, 1995, significantly before the effective date of the new legislation, April 24, 1996. This case is therefore governed by the law that was in force prior to the statutory amendments. We therefore have no occasion to reach the issue addressed by the amicus. 3 7 Prior to the new legislation, this circuit, and indeed the other circuits that had addressed the issue, had determined that the appellate jurisdiction of a court of appeals is not cabined by an attempt on the part of the district court to limit the scope of the appeal through the issuance of a certificate of probable cause limited to the particular issue. See Smith v. Chrans, 836 F.2d 1076 (7th Cir.1988) (per curiam) (holding that a district court's limitation on a certificate of probable cause has no legal effect on the scope of the appeal and discussing authorities in other circuits). Because we must apply this law in this case, we shall address not only the issue mentioned by the district court in the certificate but also the other matters raised by the appellant in his brief before this court. With respect to each, we apply the pre-AEDPA standards of review.