Cite as: 507 U. S. 680 (1993)
Opinion of Scalia, J.
Justice Scalia, with whom Justice Thomas joins, concurring in part and dissenting in part.
The issue in this case—whether the extraordinary remedy of federal habeas corpus should routinely be available for claimed violations of Miranda rights—involves not jurisdiction to issue the writ, but the equity of doing so. In my view, both the Court and Justice O'Connor disregard the most powerful equitable consideration: that Williams has already had full and fair opportunity to litigate this claim. He had the opportunity to raise it in the Michigan trial court; he did so and lost. He had the opportunity to seek review of the trial court's judgment in the Michigan Court of Appeals; he did so and lost. Finally, he had the opportunity to seek discretionary review of that Court of Appeals judgment in both the Michigan Supreme Court and this Court; he did so and review was denied. The question at this stage is whether, given all that, a federal habeas court should now reopen the issue and adjudicate the Miranda claim anew. The answer seems to me obvious: it should not. That would be the course followed by a federal habeas court reviewing a federal conviction; it mocks our federal system to accord state convictions less respect.
I
By statute, a federal habeas court has jurisdiction over any claim that a prisoner is "in custody in violation of the Constitution or laws" of the United States. See 28 U. S. C. §§ 2241(c)(3), 2254(a), 2255. While that jurisdiction does require a claim of legal error in the original proceedings, cf. Herrera v. Collins, 506 U. S. 390 (1993), it is otherwise sweeping in its breadth. As early as 1868, this Court described it in these terms:
"This legislation is of the most comprehensive character. It brings within the habeas corpus jurisdiction of every court and of every judge every possible case of privation of liberty contrary to the National Constitu-
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