720
Opinion of Scalia, J.
reason not be applied to Miranda claims. I think the answer to that question is clear: Prior opportunity to litigate an issue should be an important equitable consideration in any habeas case, and should ordinarily preclude the court from reaching the merits of a claim, unless it goes to the fairness of the trial process or to the accuracy of the ultimate result.
Our case law since Stone is entirely consistent with this view. As the Court notes, ante, at 687-688, we have held that the rule in Stone does not apply in three cases. Kimmelman v. Morrison, 477 U. S. 365 (1986), involved alleged denial of the Sixth Amendment right to counsel, which unquestionably goes to the fairness of the trial process. Rose v. Mitchell, 443 U. S. 545 (1979), involved alleged discrimination by the trial court in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. We concluded that since the "same trial court will be the court that initially must decide the merits of such a claim," and since the claim involved an assertion that "the state judiciary itself has purposely violated the Equal Protection Clause," no opportunity for a full and fair state hearing existed. Id., at 561; see also id., at 563. And Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S. 307 (1979), involved a claim that "no rational trier of fact could have found proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt," id., at 324, which is obviously a direct challenge to the accuracy of the ultimate result.
III
The rule described above—or indeed a rule even somewhat more limiting of habeas review than that—is followed in federal postconviction review of federal convictions under 28 U. S. C. � 2255. In Kaufman v. United States, 394 U. S. 217 (1969), which held that res judicata does not bar � 2255 habeas review of constitutional issues, we stated that a district court had "discretion" to refuse to reach the merits of a constitutional claim that had already been raised and resolved against the prisoner at trial and on direct review.
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