722
Opinion of Scalia, J.
418. In my view, that theory is profoundly wrong for several reasons.
First, it has its origin in a misreading of our early precedents. Fay interpreted the holding of Ex parte Royall— that federal courts had discretion not to entertain the habeas claims of state prisoners prior to the conclusion of state-court proceedings—as containing the implication that after conclusion of those proceedings there would be plenary federal review of all constitutional claims. 372 U. S., at 420. In fact, however, Royall had noted and affirmed the common-law rule that claims of error not going to the jurisdiction of the convicting court could ordinarily be entertained only on writ of error, not on habeas corpus. 117 U. S., at 253. See Fay, supra, at 453-454 (Harlan, J., dissenting). See also Schneckloth v. Bustamonte, 412 U. S. 218, 255 (1973) (Powell, J., concurring). Royall contained no hint of a suggestion that a federal habeas court should afford state-court judgments less respect than federal-court judgments. To the contrary, it maintained the traditional view that federal and state courts have equal responsibility for the protection of federal constitutional rights. The discretion of the federal habeas court "should be exercised," it said, "in the light of the relations existing, under our system of government, between the judicial tribunals of the Union and of the States, . . . courts equally bound to guard and protect rights secured by the Constitution." 117 U. S., at 251. And in describing the proper disposition of a federal habeas petition filed after state conviction, Royall cited Ex parte Lange, 18 Wall. 163 (1874), which involved a federal habeas attack on a federal conviction. See 117 U. S., at 253. Thus, Royall is properly understood as saying that the federal habeas statute guaranteed state prisoners, not a federal forum for all their federal claims, but rather the same rights to federal habeas relief that federal prisoners possessed.
Worse than misreading case precedent, however, the federal right/federal forum theory misperceives the basic struc-
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