360
Blackmun, J., dissenting
his IAD rights according to the precise rules the Court announces for the first time today.
The Court purports to resolve this case by relying on "precedent already in place," ante, at 348, referring to "principles and precedent generally controlling availability of the great writ," ante, at 352. Our precedent, on its face, does not reach nearly so far, and its extension to this case is unwarranted under general habeas corpus principles. Most seriously, the Court disregards Congress' unambiguous judgment about the severity of, and the necessary remedy for, a violation of the IAD time limits. I respectfully dissent.
I
The Court purports to resolve this issue by relying on the Hill-Timmreck line of cases. See Hill v. United States, 368 U. S. 424 (1962); Davis v. United States, 417 U. S. 333 (1974); United States v. Timmreck, 441 U. S. 780 (1979); see also Sunal v. Large, 332 U. S. 174 (1947); United States v. Frady, 456 U. S. 152 (1982). Despite the professed narrowness of the Court's ultimate holding, however, its decision reflects certain assumptions about the nature of habeas review of state court judgments that do not withstand close analysis. Each of the cases relied on by the majority—Hill, Timmreck, and Davis—concerned a federal prisoner's request under 28 U. S. C. § 2255 for collateral relief from alleged defects in his federal trial. Before today, this Court never had applied those precedents to bar review of a § 2254 petition.1 It does so now without a full discussion of, or appreciation for, the different policy concerns that should shape the exercise of federal courts' discretion in § 2254 cases.
1 The majority notes, ante, at 354, that the Court cited Hill in Stone v. Powell, 428 U. S. 465, 477, n. 10 (1976), a § 2254 case. The decision in that case, however, rested not on Hill, but on considerations unique to the exclusionary rule.
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