Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2006
ISSN
0010-8847
Publisher
Cornell Law School
Language
en-US
Abstract
I know what you are thinking. Of all the things that can conceivably happen in this field, the least likely (the very least likely) is that Congress will take a fresh look at federal habeas corpus for state prisoners. It was only in 1996 that Congress enacted the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA),' which ostensibly "reformed" the scheme by which prisoners employ federal habeas to challenge state criminal convictions or sentences. 2 Passing a bill of this magnitude is no small feat. Once such legislation receives approval from both houses of Congress and the President, no one has any appetite to resume a political battle that, for good or ill, the enacted statute has resolved. Realistically, the habeas law we currently have is the habeas law we are going to have for the foreseeable future.3 Nevertheless, in this academic setting I have a certain warrant, even a responsibility, to set political realism aside. That is what I mean to do.
Recommended Citation
Larry Yackle,
State Convicts and Federal Courts: Reopening the Habeas Corpus Debate
,
in
91
Cornell Law Review
541
(2006).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/1013
