716
Opinion of Scalia, J.
tion, treaties, or laws. It is impossible to widen this jurisdiction." Ex parte McCardle, 6 Wall. 318, 325- 326 (1868).
Our later case law has confirmed that assessment. Habeas jurisdiction extends, we have held, to federal claims for which an opportunity for full and fair litigation has already been provided in state or federal court, see Brown v. Allen, 344 U. S. 443, 458-459 (1953); Kaufman v. United States, 394 U. S. 217, 223-224 (1969), to procedurally defaulted federal claims, including those over which this Court would have no jurisdiction on direct review, see Fay v. Noia, 372 U. S. 391, 426, 428-429 (1963); Kaufman, supra, at 223; Wainwright v. Sykes, 433 U. S. 72, 90-91 (1977); Coleman v. Thompson, 501 U. S. 722, 750 (1991), and to federal claims of a state criminal defendant awaiting trial, see Ex parte Royall, 117 U. S. 241, 251 (1886).
But with great power comes great responsibility. Habeas jurisdiction is tempered by the restraints that accompany the exercise of equitable discretion. This is evident from the text of the federal habeas statute, which provides that writs of habeas corpus "may be granted"—not that they shall be granted—and enjoins the court to "dispose of the matter as law and justice require." 28 U. S. C. §§ 2241(a), 2243 (emphases added). That acknowledgment of discretion is merely the continuation of a long historic tradition. In English law, habeas corpus was one of the so-called "prerogative" writs, which included the writs of mandamus, certiorari, and prohibition. Duker, The English Origins of the Writ of Habeas Corpus: A Peculiar Path to Fame, 53 N. Y. U. L. Rev. 983, 984, n. 2 (1978); 3 W. Blackstone, Commentaries 132 (1768). "[A]s in the case of all other prerogative writs," habeas would not issue "as of mere course," but rather required a showing "why the extraordinary power of the crown is called in to the party's assistance." Ibid. And even where the writ was issued to compel production of the
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