Court Opinion

ID: 9498023
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 17:06:11.628743+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:58:34.185049
License: Public Domain

SACK, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I fully concur in the thorough and thoughtful opinion of Judge Kearse. I pause to note that it expresses doubt about our previously stated view that the New York Court of Appeals rule as to ineffective assistance of counsel, see, e.g., People v. Benevento, 91 N.Y.2d 708, 697 N.E.2d 584, 674 N.Y.S.2d 629 (1998), is not “contrary to” federal law clearly established by the Supreme Court in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). Ante at 68-71. The opinion cites (and therefore casts doubt upon the conclusion in) three of our decisions: Lindstadt v. Keane, 239 F.3d 191, 198 (2d Cir.2001) (“The standard applied by the state court is not diametrically different, opposite in character or nature, or mutually opposed to the standard articulated in Strickland.”) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted); Loliscio v. Goord, 263 F.3d 178, 193 (2d Cir.2001) (same, citing Lindstadt); Eze v. Senkowski, 321 F.3d 110, 123-24 (2d Cir.2003) (same, citing Lindstadt and Loliscio, but noting in that connection, as Judge Kearse does here, ante at 70, “that we are compelled to follow the decisions of earlier panels unless they have been called into question by an intervening Supreme Court decision or by one of this Court sitting in banc”) (citation and internal' quotation marks omitted).
Because I concurred in Lindstadt, I write separately to note that I nonetheless find considerable merit in Judge Kearse’s criticism of the rule. Our decision here does not turn on its correctness. If. and *73when we are required to decide an appeal that does, assuming that the Supreme Court does not give us guidance in the interim, we might be well advised to consider the appeal for en bane review as a means to reconsider the issue. Cf. Landell v. Sorrell, 406 F.3d 159 (2d Cir.2005) (Sack, J. and Katzmann, J.,- concurring in denial of rehearing en banc).