Court Opinion

ID: 9425323
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:14:22.633704+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:54.715970
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Powell,
with whom The Chief Justice and Mr. Justice Rehnquist join, concurring.
In this case the District Court and the Court of Appeals entertained a habeas corpus attack upon a state court conviction on the ground that the evidence seized in violation of the Fourth Amendment had been wrongly admitted at the state trial. For the reasons set forth in my concurring opinion in Schneckloth v. Bustamonte, ante, p. 250, I think a claim such as this is properly available in federal habeas corpus only to the extent of ascertaining whether the prisoner was afforded a fair opportunity to raise and have adjudicated the question in state courts. The Court today, however, reaches the merits of the respondent’s Fourth Amendment claim, and on the merits I join the Court’s opinion.