Court Opinion

ID: 9497468
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:52:13.514992+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:58:12.783193
License: Public Domain

NYGAARD, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I agree with the majority’s conclusion. I, too, would reverse. I write briefly, however, to state my view of what the phrase “clearly established federal law as defined by the Supreme Court of the United States,” means, and should mean. To me, the Fifth Amendment and its axiomatic injunction is clearly established federal law, and has been since Malloy v. Hogan, when the Supreme Court through the doctrine of incorporation ruled that the Fifth Amendment’s protections applied to the states as well as the federal government. 378 U.S. 1, 6, 84 S.Ct. 1489, 12 L.Ed.2d 653 (1964).
First, I believe that neither the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 nor Williams v. Taylor, 529 *278S.Ct. 362, 120 S.Ct. 1495, 146 L.Ed.2d 389 (2000), preclude us from looking to the actual text ■ of the Constitution to determine the relevant clearly established federal law when the Supreme Court has not addressed the issue. It is my opinion that Congress’ statement that a state court’s decision must stand unless it is “contrary to, or an unreasonable application of, clearly established federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States” was not meant to pretermit consideration of a protection expressly provided by the Bill of Rights.
To me, a fair reading of Williams indicates that what the Court was establishing therein, is that it is to be its word, as opposed to that from the inferior courts, that determines federal law for the purposes of habeas review. 529 U.S. at 381, 120 S.Ct. 1495 (“If this Court has not broken sufficient legal ground to establish an asked-for constitutional principle, the lower federal courts cannot themselves establish such a principle with clarity sufficient to satisfy the AEDPA bar.”) (Stevens, J., concurring). The Court,- however, did not hold that AEDPA somehow disestablished the Constitution itself as clear federal law.
Precluding the text of the Constitution from being considered as clearly established federal law could create the anomaly of having an explicit and self-evident constitutional right that is unenforceable in habeas proceedings simply because the Supreme Court has not elaborated upon the contours of that right. It is after all the Constitution, and not the Supreme Court, that created the cherished American rights relied upon, inter alia, by habeas petitioners. I ■ conclude that the clearest statement of federal law is found in the express text, and derived from the obvious intent, of the Fifth Amendment itself.
The well-known text of the Fifth Amendment itself ensures that no person “shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.” U.S. Const. Amend. V. I cannot believe that Congress would consider anything to be more clearly established. I certainly do not. The essence of this Amendment’s language is “the requirement that the state which proposes to convict and punish an individual produce the evidence against him by the independent labor of its officers, not by the simple, cruel expedient of forcing it from his own lips.” Smith, 451 U.S. at 462, 101 S.Ct. 1866 (quoting Culombe v. Connecticut, 367 U.S. 568, 581-82, 81 S.Ct. 1860, 6 L.Ed.2d 1037 (1961)). In Gibbs’ second trial, when the Commonwealth introduced Gibbs’ own incriminating words, thereby forcing him to “be a witness against himself,” nothing could be more clear than that it violated his Fifth Amendment rights.
Finally, although I find no jurisprudential support for my position, See e.g., Felker v. Turpin, 518 U.S. 651 663, 116 S.Ct. 2333, 2339, 135 L.Ed.2d 827 (1996), Green v. French, 143 F.3d 865, 875 (4th Cir.1998), to the extent AEDPA was actually intended by Congress to deny access by habeas petitioners to the protections of the Bill of Rights subject to a condition precedent, in my view this preclusion should be considered a suspension of the writ. Thus to the extent Congress intended to deny, or has denied, our power to provide habeas relief, it is my opinion that it has violated the Suspension Clause, Art. I, § 9 of the Constitution, which, at a more enlightened time should act as a textual limit on Congress’ power to withdraw jurisdiction from the federal courts to enforce Constitutional rights under the Great Writ.
In my view, a trial judge with a modest understanding of the Constitution would quickly conclude that the injunction con*279tained in the Fifth Amendment is so clearly established that Gibbs’ inculpatory statement could not be introduced into evidence against him. But because the trial court admitted the statement,' it deprived Gibbs of his right against self-incrimination by violating the express language of the Fifth Amendment. Its decision was contrary to clearly established federal law; and I too, would reverse.