Court Opinion

ID: 9493641
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 15:13:56.532266+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:55:56.671271
License: Public Domain

TASHIMA, Circuit Judge,
with whom TROTT and BERZON, Circuit Judges, join, concurring:
We are all in agreement that this case should be reversed and remanded, but the court’s opinion gives hardly a clue as to why we are doing so. I concur in the majority opinion, but I write separately briefly to set forth my understanding of why we unanimously agree that this case must be reversed and remanded “for appropriate development of the record.”
Neither the “impediment” standard contained in the statute, 28 U.S.C. § 2244(d)(1)(B), nor this court’s equitable tolling standard, see Calderon v. United States Dist. Court (Beeler), 128 F.3d 1283, 1288-89 (9th Cir.1997), overruled on other grounds, Calderon v. United States Dist. Court (Kelly), 163 F.3d 530, 540 (9th Cir. 1998) (en banc), cert. denied, 526 U.S. 1060, 119 S.Ct. 1377, 143 L.Ed.2d 535 (1999), requires that petitioner prove an inability to “research and identify [his] claims,” as the district court held, in order to rely upon barriers to researching legal issues as the basis for delaying the start of, or tolling, the statute of limitations. A prisoner acting pro se can be prevented from discovering the most basic procedural rules essential to avoid being summarily thrown out of court, even if the claims alleged in the petition are meritorious, well-drafted, and supported by every pertinent citation entitling him to relief on the merits. Cf. Rand v. Rowland, 154 F.3d 952, 958 (9th Cir.1998) (en banc), cert. denied, 527 U.S. 1035, 119 S.Ct. 2392, 144 *1149L.Ed.2d 798 (1999) (noting handicaps faced by prisoners acting pro se in complying with procedural requirements). A petitioner’s knowledge of the legal basis of his claims is not the same as knowledge of the procedural rules that must be complied with in order to get a hearing on the merits. The fact that, like a broken clock, a petitioner who has no way of learning the limitations period may nonetheless be timely occasionally is not pertinent to determining whether there is an “impediment” (under the statute) or an “extraordinary circumstance” (under our equitable tolling cases) because of the inability to learn and be guided by such critically important procedural rules as the governing limitations period. The legal standard applied by the magistrate judge and adopted by the district court in judging the timeliness issue was, therefore, erroneous.
We cannot tell, however, on this record, precisely what the factual circumstances were regarding Whalem/Hunt’s ability or inability to learn of the AEDPA’s imposition of a one-year statute of limitations. Nor can we determine the connection, if any, between Whalem/Hunt’s late-filing of his petition and any legal research difficulties affecting him while in prison. It is for these reasons that the court’s opinion rightly states that the “determinations of whether there was an ‘impediment’ under § 2244(d)(1)(B) and whether there are grounds for equitable tolling are highly fact-dependent ...” and remands for the development of an adequate record.
With this added observation I wholly concur in the court’s opinion.