Cite as: 523 U. S. 614 (1998)
Scalia, J., dissenting
gether, the cases within them are not at all rare, but indeed exceedingly numerous.
It is well established that "when this Court construes a statute, it is explaining its understanding of what the statute has meant continuously since the date when it became law." Rivers v. Roadway Express, Inc., 511 U. S. 298, 313, n. 12 (1994). Thus, every time this Court resolves a Circuit split regarding the elements of a crime defined in a federal statute, most, if not all, defendants who pleaded guilty in those Circuits on the losing end of the split will have confessed "involuntarily," having been advised by the court, or by their counsel, that the law was what (as it turns out) it was not—or even (since this would suffice for application of Henderson) merely not having been advised that the law was what (as it turns out) it was. Indeed the latter basis for "involuntariness" (mere lack of " 'real notice of the true nature of the charge against him,' " Henderson, supra, at 645) might be available even to those defendants pleading guilty in the Circuits on the winning side of the split. Thus, our decision in Bailey v. United States, 516 U. S. 137 (1995), has generated a flood of 28 U. S. C. § 2255 habeas petitions, each asserting actual innocence of "using" a firearm in violation of 18 U. S. C. § 924(c). This Term, we will resolve a Circuit split over the meaning of another element ("carry" a firearm) in the same statute. See Muscarello v. United States, No. 96-1654; Cleveland v. United States, No. 96-8837. And we will also resolve Circuit splits over the requisite elements of five other federal criminal statutes. See Salinas v. United States, 522 U. S. 52 (1997) (18 U. S. C. § 666(a)(1)(B)); Brogan v. United States, 522 U. S. 398 (1998) (18 U. S. C. § 1001); Bates v. United States, 522 U. S. 23 (1997) (20 U. S. C. § 1097(a)); Bryan v. United States, No. 96-8422 (18 U. S. C. § 922(a)(1)(A)); Caron v. United States, No. 97-6270 (18 U. S. C. § 921(a)(20)).
To the undeniable fact that the claim of "actual innocence" is much more likely to be available in guilty-plea cases than
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