Cite as: 512 U. S. 849 (1994)
Opinion of O'Connor, J.
that capital defendants must raise at least some colorable federal claim before a stay of execution may be entered.
"[F]ederal habeas [is not] a means by which a defendant is entitled to delay an execution indefinitely. The procedures adopted to facilitate the orderly consideration and disposition of habeas petitions are not legal entitlements that a defendant has a right to pursue irrespective of the contribution these procedures make toward uncovering constitutional error." Barefoot v. Estelle, 463 U. S. 880, 887-888 (1983).
See also Autry v. Estelle, 464 U. S. 1 (1983) (per curiam) (no automatic stay in this Court for review of a first federal habeas petition where petition lacks merit).
Petitioner has not filed anything describing the nature of his claims, if any. As a consequence, the Court's approach, which permits a stay of execution in the absence of any showing of a constitutional claim, conflicts with the sound principle underlying our precedents that federal habeas review exists only to review errors of constitutional dimension, and that the habeas procedures may be invoked only when necessary to resolve a constitutional claim. Barefoot, supra, at 892-896; see Townsend v. Sain, 372 U. S. 293, 312 (1963).
Congress knows how to give courts the broad authority to stay proceedings of the sort urged by petitioner. For example, Congress expressly provided this Court with authority to grant stays pending the filing of a petition for a writ of certiorari:
"In any case in which the final judgment or decree of any court is subject to review by the Supreme Court on writ of certiorari, the execution and enforcement of such judgment or decree may be stayed for a reasonable time to enable the party aggrieved to obtain a writ of certiorari from the Supreme Court." 28 U. S. C. § 2101(f).
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