320
Opinion of the Court
"When a certificate of probable cause is issued by the district court, as it was in this case, or later by the court of appeals, petitioner must then be afforded an opportunity to address the merits, and the court of appeals is obligated to decide the merits of the appeal. Accordingly, a court of appeals, where necessary to prevent the case from becoming moot by the petitioner's execution, should grant a stay of execution pending disposition of an appeal when a condemned prisoner obtains a certificate of probable cause on his initial habeas appeal." Id., at 893-894.
We believe that the same principle applies when a district court is faced with a request for a stay in a first federal habeas case: If the district court cannot dismiss the petition on the merits before the scheduled execution, it is obligated to address the merits and must issue a stay to prevent the case from becoming moot. That is, if the district court lacks authority to directly dispose of the petition on the merits, it would abuse its discretion by attempting to achieve the same result indirectly by denying a stay. Of course, a district court is authorized to dismiss a petition summarily when "it plainly appears from the face of the petition and any exhibits annexed to it that the petitioner is not entitled to relief in the district court," Habeas Corpus Rule 4, just as a court of appeals is not required to address an appeal that fails to meet the certificate of probable cause standard of a "substantial showing of the denial of a federal right," see Barefoot, 463 U. S., at 893-894. And, as is also true of consideration of appeals, a district court may, within the constraints of due process, expedite proceedings on the merits. Id., at 894-895.
In this case, Lonchar's claims certainly seem substantial enough to prevent dismissal under Rule 4, and the State does not argue to the contrary. That being so, we believe that the District Court and Court of Appeals were correct to as-
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