Cite as: 517 U. S. 314 (1996)
Opinion of the Court
its own legal processes. Withrow v. Williams, 507 U. S. 680, 698 (1993) (O'Connor, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part); McCleskey, supra, at 490-492; Reed v. Ross, 468 U. S. 1, 10 (1984). These legal principles are embodied in statutes, rules, precedents, and practices that control the writ's exercise. Within constitutional constraints they reflect a balancing of objectives (sometimes controversial), which is normally for Congress to make, but which courts will make when Congress has not resolved the question. See Brecht v. Abrahamson, 507 U. S. 619, 632-633 (1993).
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. "There is no such thing in the Law, as Writs of Grace and Favour issuing from the Judges." Opinion on the Writ of Habeas Corpus, Wilm. 77, 87, 97 Eng. Rep. 29, 36 (1758) (Wilmot, J.). 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 (1995) (Thomas, J., concurring). See also Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody, 422 U. S. 405, 417 (1975); The Federalist No. 78, p. 528 (J. Cooke ed. 1961). As Selden pointed out so many years ago, the alternative is to use each equity chancellor's conscience as a measure of equity, which alternative would be as arbitrary and uncertain as measuring distance by the length of each chancellor's foot. See 1 J. Story, Commentaries on Equity Jurisprudence 16 (13th ed. 1886).
That is why this Court, in McCleskey, said that concern about habeas petition abuses has led to "a complex and evolving body of equitable principles informed and controlled by historical usage, statutory developments, and judicial decisions." 499 U. S., at 489 (emphasis added). And it is why this Court, in McCleskey, also reaffirmed the importance, " 'in order to preclude individualized enforcement of the Constitution in different parts of the Nation,' " of " 'lay[ing] down as specifically as the nature of the problem permits the
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