Court Opinion

ID: 9489973
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 13:29:22.316911+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:53:49.743100
License: Public Domain

RYAN, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
With something less than absolute certainty, I concur in my colleagues’ conclusion that the district court in this case has the authority to issue a certificate of appealability permitting the petitioner to appeal the denial of his request for a writ of habeas corpus. I do not reach that conclusion, however, for all of the reasons enunciated in my sister’s opinion; as a matter of fact, I disagree very strongly with some of them. The challenge, of course, is to determine the intent of Congress and the President in enacting and-approving, respectively, the amendments to 28 U.S.C. § 2253 and Fed.RApp.P. 22(b).
*1077I.
A.
Under ordinary circumstances the plain language of a statute should control the statute’s interpretation. In this case, however, the relevant provisions of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act do not yield a plain interpretation. Whereas section 102 of the Act, amending 28 U.S.C. § 2253, provides that “[u]nless a circuit justice or judge issues a certificate of appealability, an appeal [of denial of a writ of habeas corpus ] may not be taken to the court of appeals,” section 103 of the Act, amending Rule 22(b), provides that such an appeal may not be taken “unless a district or a circuit judge issues a certificate of appealability.”
I recognize that it is possible to read sections 102 and 103 of the Act in harmony by supposing that, in section 2253(c)(1), Congress intended the word “circuit” to modify only “justice” and not “judge.” To my mind, however, this contortion is too extreme to be considered meaningful and I am unwilling to rely upon it merely to avoid the fairly unremarkable conclusion that the Act points in two directions at once. My resistance to this approach is fortified by the fact that, prior to the Act, section 2253 provided that “[a]n appeal may not be taken to the court of appeals ... unless the justice or judge who rendered the order or a circuit justice or judge issues a certificate of probable cause.” Unless this passage was unnaturally redundant, the pre-Act phrase “circuit justice or judge” did not include the judges of the district courts.
I also reject the argument that Rule 22(b) does not conflict with section 2253 because it provides that the certificate of appealability should be issued “pursuant to section 2253(c).” To suppose that this clause renders a district court’s issuance of a certificate unauthorized or, at the least, ineffectual, is to make nonsense of the great bulk of Rule 22(b)’s plain language.
To my mind, then, it is clear that, as amended, section 2253 excludes the district courts from the certification process while, at the same time, Rule 22(b) expressly includes them. In such circumstances, our usual course is to consider the statute’s legislative history. Unfortunately, the legislative history pertaining to these amendments is not enlightening. Both parties before this court, and the courts that have previously considered the problem, have concluded that the legislative history does not speak specifically to the role of the district courts in the issuance of certificates of appealability. I. have found no legislative history to upset this conclusion.
Unable to locate a precise statement of intent, both Lyons and the state have endeavored to find support for their positions in the undisputed but general congressional intent to make the habeas process more efficient. Indeed, both parties have suggested colorable reasons why efficiency concerns might favor their respective positions. However, whether district courts, appellate courts, or both courts acting in concert would be more or less efficient in the consideration of certificates of appealability is a legislative question. It is not within a court’s competence to suppose Congress’s intent by speculating as to the balance of these efficiencies.
Recognizing that the weighing of efficiencies is a peculiarly legislative function does not, of course, resolve the statutory conundrum before us. Rather, it leads me to the conclusion that the intended application of Rule 22(b) and section 2253 must be gleaned solely from an analysis of the present and past language of these provisions. To this end, it seems most likely that Congress either: (1) intended to delete the district court’s authority in section 2253(c) but neglected to amend Rule 22(b) accordingly; or (2) intended to retain the district court’s authority in Rule 22(b) but inadvertently deleted it in section 2253(c). The possibility that Congress intended to require both the district court and the circuit court to issue a certificate of appealability is one I reject because it offends the apparent meaning of both section 2253 and Rule 22(b).
I conclude that district courts are authorized to issue certificates of appealability and that, where the district court does issue such a certificate, “a circuit justice or judge” is not also required to do so. It seems to me more likely that Congress accidentally excluded *1078the district courts from section 2253 than it does that Congress intended this exclusion but failed to notice or remedy the substantial contradictory language of Rule 22(b). Had Congress made no changes whatsoever to Rule 22(b), the contrary result might be more reasonably inferred. In light of section 103 of the Act, however, there can be no doubt that Congress was cognizant of Rule 22(b).
Ultimately, the interpretation of the Act which includes the district court’s involvement appears to me to be a less flagrant affront to the statutory language of section 2253(c) than a contrary conclusion would be to the language of Rule 22(b). This is, there can be no doubt, a sorry foundation for the construction of a statute. We do not, however, have the luxury of nondeeision and, as I have argued, the alternative bases for interpreting the Act are either less sound or, worse yet, altogether improper.
I do not reach my conclusion in this case easily. In fact, my instincts argue against my conclusion. Congress has considered transferring the certification process from the district court to the circuit court many times in the last fourteen years. It is plausible that the new amendments were intended to effect this change and, in my judgment, it could well be more efficient to do so. But, as I have said, it would be inappropriate to impute to the enactors of the legislation my notions of judicial economy. Moreover, the many attempts over the .years to remove the district courts from the certification process may, in the final analysis, just as easily portend another failure as they may a final success.
In my opinion, the amendments to section 2253 and Rule 22(b) are more reasonably read as retaining the district court’s authority to certify habeas appeals to this court. Accordingly, I concur in my colleagues’ judgment.
B.
I also agree that the law of Landgraf v. USI Film Products, 511 U.S. 244, 114 S.Ct. 1483, 128 L.Ed.2d 229 (1994), means that the amended certificate of appealability provisions of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1966 discussed above apply to this ease. I agree that the ease must be remanded to allow the district court to issue a certificate that complies with 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c)(3).