Details on today’s opinion
on Nov 8, 2011 at 10:41 am
The first opinion of the Term is in Greene v. Fisher. Justice Scalia wrote the opinion for a unanimous Court, which held that for purposes of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, “clearly established federal law” is limited to the Supreme Court’s decisions “as of the time of the relevant state-court adjudication on the merits.” The Court further held that because the last state-court adjudication on the merits of Greene’s claims – that of the Pennsylvania Superior Court – predated the Court’s decision in Gray v. Maryland by nearly three months, the Third Circuit correctly held that Gray was not “clearly established Federal law” against which it could measure the state-court decision, and the state court’s decision was thus neither “contrary to” nor “an unreasonable application of” any “clearly established Federal law.”
Disclaimer: Goldstein & Russell, P.C. serves as counsel to the petitioner in this case.
