Cite as: 522 U. S. 87 (1997)
Opinion of the Court
generally Coleman v. Thompson, 501 U. S. 722 (1991); Rose v. Lundy, 455 U. S. 509 (1982).
In his petition for certiorari to this Court, Trest pointed out that the Court of Appeals had raised and decided the question of "procedural default" sua sponte. The parties themselves had neither raised nor argued the matter. And language in the Court of Appeals' opinion suggested that the court had thought that, once it had noticed the possibility of a procedural default, it was required to raise the matter on its own. Trest consequently asked us to decide whether a court of appeals, reviewing a district court's habeas corpus decision, "is required to raise . . . sua sponte" a petition-er's potential procedural default. Pet. for Cert. i (emphasis added). We agreed to do so.
Precedent makes clear that the answer to the question presented is "no." A court of appeals is not "required" to raise the issue of procedural default sua sponte. It is not as if the presence of a procedural default deprived the federal court of jurisdiction, for this Court has made clear that in the habeas context, a procedural default, that is, a critical failure to comply with state procedural law, is not a jurisdictional matter. See Lambrix v. Singletary, 520 U. S. 518, 522-523 (1997); Coleman, 501 U. S., at 730-731. Rather, "[i]n the habeas context, the application of the independent and adequate state ground doctrine," of which a procedural default is typically an instance, "is grounded in concerns of comity and federalism." Id., at 730 (contrasting habeas proceeding with this Court's direct review of a state court judgment). Thus, procedural default is normally a "defense" that the State is "obligated to raise" and "preserv[e]" if it is not to "lose the right to assert the defense thereafter." Gray v. Netherland, 518 U. S. 152, 166 (1996); see Jenkins v. Anderson, 447 U. S. 231, 234, n. 1 (1980). We are not aware of any precedent stating that a habeas court must raise such a matter where the State itself does not do so. And Louisiana concedes as much, for it says in its brief that "the Fifth
89
Page: Index Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007