With today’s decision in Berghuis v. Thompkins the Supreme Court has once again reversed the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in a habeas case. Indeed, this is the fifthsuch reversal this year. In each case, a panel of the Sixth Circuit granted a prisoner’s habeas corpus petition. In each case, the Supreme Court reversed. Three of these decisions were unanimous (Berghuis v. Smith, Smith v. Spisak and Bobby v. Van Hook), one was 6-3 (Renico v. Lett). Today’s decision was 5-4. Overall, this means the Circuit could only muster 7 of 45 available votes in support of its decisions.
It’s hardly unheard of for a single circuit to be reversed five or more times in a single term. The number of cases up for review in any given year is a sufficiently small and unrepresentative sample to preclude drawing any sweeping conclusions. Still, it is unusual to see a circuit fare so poorly in a single area of the law in a single term, and in such a uniform direction.
The spate of reversals is also notable because the Sixth Circuit has been so divided in habeas cases of late. As I’ve chronicled over the past several years (see, e.g., here, here and here), the judges on the Sixth Circuit are deeply split over the proper standard of review in habeas cases, particularly when the death penalty is involved. Indeed, the Circuit released yet another divided panel decisionin a habeas case this morning. The uniformity of the reversals suggest that one side in the Sixth Circuit’s habeas disputes has the better of the argument, at least under existing law. If current law is too restrictive on this score — and it may well be — then it [...]