358
Opinion of Scalia, J.
counsel in favor of habeas review in a nonwaiver situation. See ante, at 348-349. I see no reason why this Court's direct review of state and federal decisions will not suffice for that purpose, as it does in most other contexts. Cf. Cuyler v. Adams, 449 U. S. 433, 442 (1981). More importantly, however, federal habeas jurisdiction was not created with the intent, nor should we seek to give it the effect, of altering the fundamental disposition that this Court, and not individual federal district judges, has appellate jurisdiction, as to federal questions, over the supreme courts of the States.
If there was ever a technical rule, the IAD's 120-day limit is one. I think we produce confusion by declining to state the obvious: that violation of that technicality, intentional or unintentional, neither produces nor is analogous to (1) lack of jurisdiction of the convicting court, (2) constitutional violation, or (3) miscarriage of justice or denial of rudimentary procedures. It is no basis for federal habeas relief.
II
In addition to substantive limitations on the equitable exercise of habeas jurisdiction, the Court has imposed procedural restrictions. For example, a habeas claim cognizable under § 2255 (the correlative of § 2254 for federal prisoners), such as a constitutional claim, will not be heard if it was procedurally defaulted below, absent a showing of cause and actual prejudice. See United States v. Frady, 456 U. S. 152, 167-168 (1982). And claims will ordinarily not be entertained under § 2255 that have already been rejected on direct review. See Kaufman v. United States, 394 U. S. 217, 227, n. 8 (1969); see also Withrow, 507 U. S., at 720-721 (Scalia, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part) (collecting cases showing that lower courts have uniformly followed the Kaufman dictum). Together, these two rules mean that "a prior opportunity for full and fair litigation is normally dispositive of a federal prisoner's habeas claim." 507 U. S., at 721.
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