Cite as: 505 U. S. 277 (1992)
O'Connor, J., concurring in judgment
on direct or habeas review. Caldwell v. Texas, 137 U. S. 692, 698 (1891); Brown v. New Jersey, 175 U. S. 172, 175 (1899).
The cases cited by Justice Thomas—Moore v. Dempsey, 261 U. S. 86 (1923), and Frank v. Mangum, 237 U. S. 309 (1915)—demonstrate that the absence of a full and fair hearing in the state courts was itself the relevant violation of the Constitution; it was not a prerequisite to a federal court's consideration of some other federal claim. Both cases held that a trial dominated by an angry mob was inconsistent with due process. In both, the Court recognized that the State could nevertheless afford due process if the state appellate courts provided a fair opportunity to correct the error. The state courts had provided such an opportunity in Frank; in Moore, they had not. In neither case is the "full and fair hearing" rule cited as a deferential standard of review applicable to habeas cases; the rule instead defines the constitutional claim itself, which was reviewed de novo. See Moore, supra, at 91-92.
Second, Justice Thomas quotes Justice Powell's opinion in Kuhlmann v. Wilson, 477 U. S. 436 (1986), out of context. Ante, at 285-286. Justice Powell said only that the judgment of a committing court of competent jurisdiction was accorded "absolute respect" on habeas in the 19th century, when the habeas inquiry was limited to the jurisdiction of the court. Kuhlmann, supra, at 446 (opinion of Powell, J.). Justice Powell was not expressing the erroneous view which Justice Thomas today ascribes to him, that state court judgments were entitled to complete deference before 1953.
Third, Justice Thomas errs in implying that Brown v. Allen, 344 U. S. 443 (1953), was the first case in which the Court held that the doctrine of res judicata is not strictly followed on federal habeas. Ante, at 287. In fact, the Court explicitly reached this holding for the first time in Salinger v. Loisel, 265 U. S. 224, 230 (1924). Even Salinger did not break new ground: The Salinger Court observed that such had been the rule at common law, and that the Court had
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