Court Opinion

ID: 9814091
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 23:34:51.370974+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:34:25.593918
License: Public Domain

MERRITT, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
We spend much more time now in habeas cases like this one discussing arcane, inscrutable points than getting to the real questions that should take up our time. This is a case in which the District Court became confused about how to apply a series of legal devices designed to close the *309door to reviewing constitutional claims on the merits in habeas cases pending partially in state court and partially in federal court. It is no wonder because the law is a morass of inconsistent, intersecting doctrines; but I agree with Judge Batchelder’s opinion that the District Court erred seriously in its effort to avoid deciding the constitutional questions on the merits.