Cite as: 517 U. S. 314 (1996)
Syllabus
first habeas petition, and it neither discussed nor cited Barefoot, much less repudiated its rationale. Pp. 319-321. 2. The Court of Appeals erred in dismissing Lonchar's first federal petition for special ad hoc "equitable" reasons not encompassed within the relevant statutes, the Federal Habeas Corpus Rules, or prior precedents. First, the history of the Great Writ reveals, not individual judges dismissing writs for ad hoc reasons, but, rather, the gradual evolution of more formal judicial, statutory, or rules-based doctrines of law that regularize and thereby narrow the discretion that individual judges can freely exercise. See, e. g., McCleskey v. Zant, 499 U. S. 467, 479- 489. Second, the fact that the writ has been called an "equitable" remedy, see, e. g., Gomez, supra, at 653-654, does not authorize a court to ignore this body of statutes, rules, and precedents. Rather, "courts of equity must be governed by rules and precedents no less than the courts of law," Missouri v. Jenkins, 515 U. S. 70, 127 (Thomas, J., concurring). The arguments against ad hoc departure from settled rules seem particularly strong when dismissal of a first habeas petition is at issue, since such dismissal denies the petitioner the protections of the Great Writ entirely. See Ex parte Yerger, 8 Wall. 85, 95. Third, Rule 9(a)—which permits courts to dismiss a habeas petition when "it appears that the state . . . has been prejudiced in its ability to respond . . . by delay in [the petition's] filing"—specifically and directly addresses the delay factor that led the Court of Appeals to dismiss Lonchar's petition. The District Court was not asked to, and did not, make a finding of prejudice in this case, whereas the Rule's history makes plain that the prejudice requirement represents a critical element in the balancing of interests undertaken by Congress and the Rule's framers, which courts may not undermine through the exercise of background equitable powers. See Bank of Nova Scotia v. United States, 487 U. S. 250, 255. Fourth, contrary to the Court of Appeals' view, Gomez, supra, at 653-654, did not authorize ad hoc equitable departures from the Habeas Corpus Rules and did not purport to work a significant change in the law applicable to the dismissal of first habeas petitions. Fifth, the fact that Lonchar filed his petition at the "eleventh hour" does not lead to a different conclusion. Gomez, supra, at 654, and, e. g., Sawyer v. Whitley, 505 U. S. 333, 341, n. 7, distinguished. The complexity inherent in developing fair and effective rules to minimize the harms created by last-minute petitions in capital cases offers a practical caution against a judicial attempt, outside the framework of the Habeas Rules, to fashion reforms concerning first federal habeas petitions. Sixth, a different result is not warranted by the special circumstances in this case, including the "next friend" petitions filed by Lonchar's siblings, his filing and later withdrawal of his own state habeas petition, and the fact that his motive for
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