Court Opinion

ID: 9465064
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 00:34:50.331341+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:38:57.426125
License: Public Domain

THORNBERRY, Circuit Judge,
with whom GODBOLD, Circuit Judge, joins, dissenting:
I fully join in Judge Roney’s dissenting opinion but write separately — and briefly— to emphasize in the strongest terms my disagreement with a per se rule for the district courts. I find it deplorable that this court would fashion a dual system of judicial decision-making in the “mixed petition” context. I certainly agree that, on appeal, we can consider the merits of an exhausted claim, but I cannot subscribe to the shackling of our brethren on the district bench with a rigid standard that, in the name of an illusory state-federal comity, proclaims them less competent than ourselves to exercise sound discretion in these matters.
Today’s decision also limits our review of the merits of exhausted claims, for a mixed petition case decided on the merits of a properly exhausted claim will not reach us unless the district court has either ignored the per se rule or overlooked the presence of an unexhausted claim. Petitioners with meritorious — and exhausted — claims will thus remain unconstitutionally restrained pending a potentially lengthy exhaustion process with regard to other unexhausted-— and perhaps unrelated — claims. I cannot countenance a rule that ties the hands of the district courts and, indirectly, of this court in dealing with violations of fundamental rights.