Court Opinion

ID: 9425709
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:15:31.02837+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:57.094784
License: Public Domain

Mr: Justice Stewart,
with whom Mr. Justice White joins, concurring.
I agree with my Brother Douglas that, when no new principle of law is presented, we should generally leave undisturbed the decision of a court of appeals that upon the particular facts of any case habeas corpus relief should be granted — or denied. For this reason I think it was a mistake to grant a writ of certiorari in this case, and I would now dismiss the writ as improvidently granted.
We are. bound here, however, by the “rule cf four.” That rule ordains that the votes of four Justices are enough to grant certiorari and bring a ease before the Court for decision on the merits. If. as many as four Justices remain so minded after oral argument, due adherence to that rule requires me to address the merits of a case, however strongly I may feel that it does not belong in this Court. See Ferguson v. Moore-McCormack Lines, 352 U. S. 521, 559 (separate opinion of Harlan, J.).
Upon this premise, I join the. Court’s opinion.