Court Opinion

ID: 9488309
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 12:41:47.544738+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:52:48.989829
License: Public Domain

RIPPLE, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
As the court notes, Teague v. Lane, 489 U.S. 288, 109 S.Ct. 1060, 103 L.Ed.2d 334 (1989), is “a threshold question in a federal habeas case.” Goeke v. Branch, — U.S. -, -, 115 S.Ct. 1275, 1276, 131 L.Ed.2d 152 (1995) (per curiam). However, we need not entertain a Teague defense if the state fails to argue it. Id. The Teague rule, although “grounded in important considerations of federal-state relations,” is not “ ‘jurisdictional.’ ” Collins v. Youngblood, 497 U.S. 37, 41, 110 S.Ct. 2715, 2718, 111 L.Ed.2d 30 (1990). Therefore, as the court correctly points out, the Supreme Court has held that a federal court may decline to apply Teague if the state waived it, but need not. Caspari v. Bohlen, — U.S. -, -, 114 S.Ct. 948, 953, 127 L.Ed.2d 236 (1994) (citing Schiro v. Farley, — U.S. -, -, 114 S.Ct. 783, 788, 127 L.Ed.2d 47 (1994)). Our jurisprudence has yet to develop guiding principles as to when our court ought to raise Teague despite the failure of the state to do so. Because, in a capital case, invocation of Teag-ue can often mean the difference between life and death for the petitioner, we need to be particularly circumspect as to when we shall invoke Teague sua sponte.
At first glance, this case might appear to be one in which we need not confront the issue of state waiver. After this appeal was under submission, the Supreme Court decided Simmons v. South Carolina, — U.S. -, 114 S.Ct. 2187, 129 L.Ed.2d 133 (1994). In its supplemental brief, the state argued that Teague precluded the application of Simmons in this case because Simmons set forth a “new rale.” It must be remembered, however, that the petitioner came to this court, and indeed to the district court,1 with a federal claim about the jury’s lack of knowledge of parole ineligibility long before the Supreme Court’s decision in Simmons. It therefore was incumbent on the state to raise the Teague defense, if it wished to rely upon it, much earlier than in the supplemental briefing that followed Simmons. If its invocation at early stages was inadequate, we are indeed confronted with the issue of whether the state’s later invocation redeems its earlier failure to raise the issue.
In its opening brief in this court, the state simply noted in a footnote that Teague was dispositive of the petitioner’s claim. See Ap-pellee’s Br. at 5 n. 1. Our case law makes clear, at least with respect to substantive issues, that “nonchalant” treatment of an issue is not sufficient to raise the matter. See United States v. Eddy, 8 F.3d 577, 583 (7th Cir.1993), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 114 S.Ct. 1663, 128 L.Ed.2d 379 (1994); United States v. Berkowitz, 927 F.2d 1376, 1384 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 502 U.S. 845, 112 S.Ct. 141, 116 L.Ed.2d 108 (1991). If this case law were applied in an even-handed fashion to the state’s initial footnote, the state would indeed have difficulty justifying its handling of the matter. It appears, however, that a somewhat less stringent standard governs the state’s invocation of Teague. The Supreme Court has instructed that we are to employ the standard that it employs in determining whether a federal question presented to it on certiorari was sufficiently presented *305to the state courts. See Goeke, — U.S. at -, 115 S.Ct. at 1276 (citing Webb v. Webb, 451 U.S. 493, 101 S.Ct. 1889, 68 L.Ed.2d 392 (1981)). In examining its own jurisdiction to review a state court judgment, the Supreme Court has required that “the record as a whole show[] either expressly or by clear implication that the federal claim was adequately presented in the state system.” Webb, 451 U.S. at 496-97, 101 S.Ct. at 1892. The record must demonstrate that the state courts were “apprised of the nature or substance of the federal claim.” Id. at 501, 101 S.Ct. at 1894. By analogy, therefore, we are to determine whether the state has made a sufficient effort to “alert [the court] to the Teague problem” and to provide the court “with ample opportunity to make a reasoned judgment on the issue.” Goeke, — U.S. at -, 115 S.Ct. at 1276.
If we apply the Goeke-Webb approach to only the state’s initial submission in this case, the state has failed to assert adequately the Teague defense. The petitioner noted in his opening brief that Simmons was before the Supreme Court on certiorari. Even though he stated, “[a]ppellant is aware of no case in which a federal court has decided the constitutional issues presented here,” Appellant’s Br. at 19, he also cited both Gardner v. Florida, 430 U.S. 349, 97 S.Ct. 1197, 51 L.Ed.2d 393 (1977), and Skipper v. South Carolina, 476 U.S. 1, 106 S.Ct. 1669, 90 L.Ed.2d 1 (1986), for the proposition that a capital defendant has the right not to be sentenced on the basis of information he did not have the opportunity to rebut. The state did not respond to that federal case law. Its terse Teague argument, in a footnote, referred only to People v. Gacho, 122 Ill.2d 221, 119 Ill.Dec. 287, 522 N.E.2d 1146 cert. denied, 488 U.S. 910, 109 S.Ct. 264, 102 L.Ed.2d 252 (1988), an Illinois Supreme Court decision based on state law. It did not reply to Mr. Stewart’s presentation of a federal question by his reliance on Gardner and Skipper.
Because the state’s initial submission was inadequate, we must face the issue of whether its later submission, after the advent of Simmons, cures, in a principled manner, the earlier defect. Given the standard enunciated by the Supreme Court — that the court be adequately apprised of the nature of the Teague argument — I believe that we can rely on Teague in this case. At the time of final submission,2 the state had fulfilled its obligation and this court, as it took the ease for decision, was apprised adequately of the basis of the state’s Teague argument. On this basis, I join the judgment and the opinion of the court.

. Because the petitioner has raised no specific objection in this court, we need not address whether Teague was raised adequately in the district court.

. Cf. Collins v. Youngblood, 497 U.S. 37, 41, 110 S.Ct. 2715, 2718, 111 L.Ed.2d 30 (1990) (noting that the Court inquired at oral argument as to whether the state intended to waive Teague, but not indicating whether invocation of the doctrine at that point would have sufficed).