300
O'Connor, J., concurring in judgment
implicitly followed it in Carter v. McClaughry, 183 U. S. 365, 378 (1902), and Ex parte Spencer, 228 U. S. 652, 658 (1913). Salinger, supra, at 230. The Court reached the same conclusion in at least two other cases between Salinger and Brown. See Waley v. Johnston, 316 U. S. 101, 105 (1942); Darr v. Burford, 339 U. S. 200, 214 (1950). Darr and Spencer, like this case, involved the initial federal habeas filings of state prisoners.
Fourth, Justice Thomas understates the certainty with which Brown v. Allen rejected a deferential standard of review of issues of law. Ante, at 287-288. The passages in which the Brown Court stated that a district court should determine whether the state adjudication had resulted in a "satisfactory conclusion," and that the federal courts had discretion to give some weight to state court determinations, ante, at 287, were passages in which the Court was discussing how federal courts should resolve questions of fact, not issues of law. This becomes apparent from a reading of the relevant section of Brown, 344 U. S., at 460-465, a section entitled "Right to a Plenary Hearing." When the Court then turned to the primary legal question presented—whether the Fourteenth Amendment permitted the restriction of jury service to taxpayers—the Court answered that question in the affirmative without any hint of deference to the state courts. Id., at 467-474. The proper standard of review of issues of law was also discussed in Justice Frankfurter's opinion, which a majority of the Court endorsed. After recognizing that state court factfinding need not always be repeated in federal court, Justice Frankfurter turned to the quite different question of determining the law. He wrote: "Where the ascertainment of the historical facts does not dispose of the claim but calls for interpretation of the legal significance of such facts, the District Judge must exercise his own judgment on this blend of facts and their legal values. Thus, so-called mixed questions or the application of constitutional principles to the facts as found leave the duty of adjudication
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