Opinion ID: 75961
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: AEDPA Applies

Text: 69 We conclude that the better reasoned approach is the one taken by the majority of the other circuits that have faced the issue before us, and we hold that the relevant date for purposes of judging AEDPA's applicability to a habeas petition is the date on which the actual § 2254 petition was filed. 70 In reaching this conclusion, we acknowledge that some of the language used by the Supreme Court in McFarland and in Hohn supports Isaacs' contention that his case began with the filing of a motion for appointment of counsel. However, we think that the best reading of McFarland is that it was concerned only with interpreting and giving effect to two, narrow statutory provisions. It would be a stretch to find that the decision indicates that for all purposes, a habeas case is pending from the time that a motion for appointment of counsel is filed. Nothing in McFarland precludes the result we reach today. 71 Likewise, Hohn was limited to the relatively narrow issue of whether an application for a COA initiated a case or controversy over which appellate courts could exercise jurisdiction consistent with Article III of the Constitution. We agree with the Seventh Circuit that [t]he answer to that question does not bear on ... whether an application for counsel ... is a `case pending' under Chapter 153 of the Judicial Code — the critical question for application of the AEDPA. Gosier, 175 F.3d at 506. 72 We are persuaded that the Seventh Circuit's approach in Gosier is the correct one. We agree that, in a sense, the filing of a motion for appointment of counsel or other threshold motions might initiate some form of case, at least in the constitutional sense. However, such a motion does not necessarily mark the genesis of the habeas case under § 2254. A motion for appointment of counsel has no relation to the merits of a habeas petition and does not seek any form of merits relief from a district court. Such a motion does not even assure that a habeas case will ever materialize. For example, an appointed counsel could well conclude that the would-be petitioner has no colorable claims to present. Therefore, only when an actual habeas petition is filed seeking relief from a conviction or sentence does § 2254 come into play. 73 Furthermore, the Supreme Court's opinion in Slack supports the idea that all proceedings that have any relation to a habeas petition do not have to be viewed as a unified whole for purposes of AEDPA. Instead, Slack expressly recognized that a court, in order to determine the applicable law, must determine what is the relevant case. Id. at 482, 120 S.Ct. at 1603. We believe that it follows — from the Supreme Court's recognition that an appellate case may be subject to AEDPA even though the underlying district court proceedings were not — that even though a motion for appointment of counsel was filed before AEDPA and was not subject to its provisions, a later-filed habeas petition may nonetheless be governed by the stricter AEDPA standards that took effect in the interim. The simple fact is, at the time AEDPA became the law, Isaacs' habeas case was not pending because it had not yet been filed and he had not asked the district court for any type of merits relief that could be characterized as habeas relief. We hold that the relevant case was not pending when AEDPA became effective, and the district court properly considered Isaacs' petition under AEDPA's standards. 74