Cite as: 518 U. S. 343 (1996)
Thomas, J., concurring
"[T]he state and its officers may not abridge or impair petitioner's right to apply to a federal court for a writ of habeas corpus. Whether a petition for writ of habeas corpus addressed to a federal court is properly drawn and what allegations it must contain are questions for that court alone to determine." 312 U. S., at 549.
The "right of access" to the courts articulated in Ex parte Hull thus imposed no affirmative obligations on the States; we stated only that a State may not "abridge or impair" a prisoner's ability to file a habeas petition in federal court.7 Ex parte Hull thus provides an extraordinarily weak starting point for concluding that the Constitution requires States to fund and otherwise assist prisoner legal research by providing law libraries or legal assistance.
Two subsequent decisions of this Court worked a moderate expansion of Ex parte Hull. The first, Johnson v. Avery, 393 U. S. 483 (1969), invalidated a Tennessee prison regulation that prohibited inmates from advising or assisting one another in the preparation of habeas corpus petitions. In striking down the regulation, the Court twice quoted Ex
7 The Court's rationale appears to have been motivated more by notions of federalism and the power of the federal courts than with the rights of prisoners. Our citation of three nonhabeas cases which held that a state court's determination on a matter of federal law is not binding on the Supreme Court supports this conclusion. See Ex parte Hull, 312 U. S., at 549, citing First Nat. Bank of Guthrie Center v. Anderson, 269 U. S. 341, 346 (1926) (the power of the Supreme Court to review independently state-court determinations of claims "grounded on the Constitution or a law of the United States" is "general, and is a necessary element of this Court's power to review judgments of state courts in cases involving the application and enforcement of federal laws"); Erie R. Co. v. Purdy, 185 U. S. 148, 152 (1902) (" '[T]he question whether a right or privilege, claimed under the Constitution or laws of the United States, was distinctly and sufficiently pleaded and brought to the notice of a state court, is itself a Federal question, in the decision of which this court, on writ of error, is not concluded by the view taken by the highest court of the State' " (citation omitted)); Carter v. Texas, 177 U. S. 442, 447 (1900) (same).
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