Court Opinion

ID: 9470194
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:59:09.504265+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:41:46.637582
License: Public Domain

MERRITT, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
Three considerations lead me to the conclusion that our Court has erred in its decision to apply Rose v. Lundy retroactively to cases pending on appeal in which the question presented was not raised in the court below: (1) Summary orders of the Supreme Court that contain no substantive discussion and set out no rule or principle of law — in this case, two two-sentence orders — do not have the precedential value of regular opinions and should not be considered binding in this case. (2) Well-settled authority on retroactivity clearly suggests that the rule of Rose v. Lundy should not be retroactively applied to cases pending on direct review when it was announced. (3) The question of the effect of mixing exhausted and unexhausted claims does not go to subject matter jurisdiction; it was not raised in the court below and was, therefore, waived as an issue on appeal.
I. SUMMARY ORDERS
Although our court believes itself bound by the two two-line orders in Duckworth and Rodriquez which simply remand habeas cases with instructions to dismiss, the Supreme Court has pointed out on several occasions that “cursory consideration” of summary dispositions “does not, of course, foreclose [the] opportunity to consider more fully” the question thought to be decided. Massachusetts Board of Retirement v. Murgia, 427 U.S. 307, 309 n. 1, 96 S.Ct. 2562, 2565 n. 1, 49 L.Ed.2d 520 (1976); Tully v. Griffin, Inc., 429 U.S. 68, 74-75, 97 S.Ct. 219, 223, 50 L.Ed.2d 227 (1976) (reaffirming the principal that summary orders should not be given full precedential weight). The members of the Supreme Court from Justice Rehnquist to Justice Brennan have expressed the view that “no one seriously contends that” summary dispositions “receive the full consideration that is given to a case argued on the merits and disposed of by written opinion,” Rehnquist, Whither the Courts, 60 A.B.A.J. 787, 790 (1974), and “obviously they are not of the same precedential value,” Edelman v. Jordan, 415 U.S. 651, 670-71, 94 S.Ct. 1347, 1359, 39 L.Ed.2d 662 (1974) (opinion of the Court by Rehnquist, J.). A summary disposition “is not to be read as a renunciation” of previously established doctrines or to receive full precedential treatment, Fusari v. Steinberg, 419 U.S. 379, 391-92, 95 S.Ct. 533, 540-541, 42 L.Ed.2d 521 (1975) (Burger, C.J., concurring). See also the dissents of Justice Brennan suggesting that summary dispositions should not receive any weight unless the issue decided is clearly expressed. See Colorado Springs Amusements, Ltd. v. Rizzo, 428 U.S. 913, 921-22, 96 S.Ct. 3228, 3232-3233, 49 L.Ed.2d 1222 (1976).
In the instant ease all we have from the Supreme Court are two two-liners that do not refer to the retroactivity or waiver questions at all and contain no substantive discussion. It simply does not make sense to conclude that these questions have now been foreclosed by that Court when it is clear that the Court never even considered, much less decided, them. Therefore, unlike our Court, I would consider the retroactivity and waiver questions on the merits. I do not consider myself foreclosed by two two-line orders that do not purport to discuss or decide the issues. In light of our common law tradition it seems elementary that for a *245legal judgment to be binding as precedent — that is, to be binding on someone other than the parties — it must rest on some explicable principle of law or form of legal reasoning. When those elements are absent, a judgment cannot be a precedent in a rational system of law because there is no way to decipher its meaning.
II. RETROACTIVITY
The Rose v. Lundy rule is a “clear break” with past decisions. That is clear both from the Rose decision itself and from the fact that this circuit and practically every other circuit followed the rule that the exhausted issues in a mixed petition should be considered.
In “clear break” civil cases federal courts should not apply a decision retroactively to pending appeals without analyzing the effect of applying the new standards on the administration of justice, Chevron Oil Co. v. Huson, 404 U.S. 97, 106-07, 92 S.Ct. 349, 355, 30 L.Ed.2d 296 (1971), a principle recently approved and followed in United States v. Johnson, -U.S. -, 102 S.Ct. 2579, 2587 n. 12, 2595, 73 L.Ed.2d 202 (1982).
In the instant case, although they feel bound to do so, practically all of the members of our court agree that it is unwise to apply Rose to pending cases. The reason that it is unwise is that the purpose of the Supreme Court in Rose is to reduce not to add to the “burden” on the federal courts. A requirement that exhausted claims already decided on the merits before Rose v. Lundy be dismissed and then relitigated in federal courts de novo a second time only adds to the burden. Retroactive application wastes judicial and litigant resources and is directly contrary to what the Supreme Court is trying to accomplish. There are unexhausted issues in many cases now pending in the federal appellate courts. In those cases the district courts have given considerable time, thought and energy to the disposition of the exhausted issues. In most the district court has denied the writ; in some it has granted the writ. To send all of those cases back to the District Court for dismissal of the exhausted issues would add an unnecessary burden to the work of the district court. Most of the cases will have to be retried after the unexhausted issues are disposed of in the state courts. For these reasons, most if not all of the members of our court, would hold, if they believed themselves free to do so, that in pending cases on appeal containing unexhausted claims the court should not decline review of the exhausted claims on the merits by applying Rose retroactively. Unlike my colleagues, I believe we are free to so decide.
III. THE WAIVER ISSUE
Here a petition for habeas corpus containing three exhausted claims and one unexhausted claim was filed. The state did not object to Judge McRae’s consideration of the exhausted claims. It did not raise the point by answer to the habeas corpus petition or by motion or otherwise. The exhausted claims were decided on the merits by the District Judge prior to the Supreme Court’s opinion in Rose v. Lundy. The issue was therefore waived.
Rule 5 of the rules governing habeas corpus cases in the District Court adopted by the Supreme Court on April 26, 1976, 28 U.S.C. § 2254, requires the defendant to set out in its answer its position respecting exhaustion of state remedies. Rule 11 of those rules makes the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure applicable. Rule 12(h), Fed.R. Civ.P., provides that the failure to raise a defense other than subject matter jurisdiction shall constitute a waiver of the defense. The defendant by failing to raise the point below has waived its claim that a mixed petition should be dismissed.
The Supreme Court’s opinion in Rose v. Lundy appears to support this position. In footnote 5 of that opinion, the Supreme Court states that in Gooding v. Wilson, 405 U.S. 518, 92 S.Ct. 1103, 31 L.Ed.2d 408 (1972), the Court properly “reviewed the merits of an exhausted claim after expressly acknowledging that the prisoner had not exhausted his state remedies for all of the claims presented” because the question was not properly “before the court.” 102 S.Ct. *246at 1201. It is unlikely that the Supreme Court would have so treated the issue if the Court had considered it a question of subject matter jurisdiction not subject to waiver. In addition the opinion in Rose v. Lundy does not discuss the rule of dismissal of mixed petitions as one of subject matter jurisdiction. The rule is based not on the premise that federal courts lack judicial power under Article III or statutory law to hear the exhausted claims contained in a mixed petition but rather it is based on a policy of conservation of judicial resources. The source of the rule of Rose v. Lundy is neither constitutional nor statutory. It is a federal common law rule.
The Hatrack case from the Third Circuit, 563 F.2d 86 (1977), relied upon by the Court, does not convince me that the Rose exhaustion doctrine is a doctrine of subject matter jurisdiction because it is based on “comity” in some small part. The basic reason given by the court for the Rose ruling is: to stop, or at least stem, the massive tide of state habeas corpus cases flowing into federal court which raise issues on a piecemeal basis. The basic reason is one of judicial economy. That is a reason and a doctrine subject to waiver when judicial economy is not served in the particular case.
The language of Rose v. Lundy is prospective and does not appear to require retroactive dismissal of pending appeals in which the question was not raised in the district court:
On the contrary, our [new] interpretation of §§ 2254(b)-(c) provides a simple and clear instruction to potential litigants: before you bring any claims to federal court, be sure that you first have taken each one to state court....
Rather than increasing the burden on federal courts, strict enforcement of the exhaustion requirement will encourage habeas petitioners to exhaust all of their claims in state court and to present the federal court with a single habeas petition. To1 the extent that the exhaustion requirement reduces piecemeal litigation, both the courts and the prisoners should benefit, for as a result the district court will be more likely to review all of the prisoner’s claims in a single proceeding, thus providing for a more focused and thorough review.
102 S.Ct. at 1204.
Application of Rose v. Lundy retroactively in this and other pending cases will certainly not “reduce piecemeal litigation” or lessen “the burden on federal courts” or serve any of the purposes discussed by the Supreme Court, and I therefore respectfully dissent.

. Section 2254 in part provides:
(b) An application for a writ of habeas corpus in behalf of a person in custody pursuant to the judgment of a State court shall not be granted unless it appears that the applicant has exhausted the remedies available in the courts of the State, or that there is either an absence of available State corrective process or the existence of circumstances rendering such process ineffective to protect the rights of the prisoner.
(c) An applicant shall not be deemed to have exhausted the remedies available in the courts of the State, within the meaning of *247this section, if he has the right under the law of the State to raise, by any available procedure, the question presented.