648
Thomas, J., dissenting
made law occasionally represents the opinion of the day before yesterday.' " Landis, A Note on "Statutory Interpretation," 43 Harv. L. Rev. 886, 888 (1930), quoting A. Dicey, Law and Opinion in England 369 (1926). As hard as it may be for this Court to swallow, in yesterday's enactment of AEDPA Congress curbed our prodigality with the Great Writ. The words that Landis applied to the Clayton Act fit very nicely the statute that emerges from the Court's decision in the present case: "The mutilated [AEDPA] bears ample testimony to the 'day before yesterday' that judges insist is today." 43 Harv. L. Rev., at 892. I dissent.
Justice Thomas, with whom Justice Scalia joins, dissenting.
From 1986 to 1991, respondent filed three petitions for federal habeas relief; each was dismissed on the ground that respondent had not yet exhausted his state remedies. In March 1993, respondent filed his fourth federal habeas petition presenting, inter alia, his claim under Ford v. Wainwright, 477 U. S. 399 (1986), that he was not competent to be executed. Finding that some of respondent's claims were procedurally defaulted, that others were without merit, and that respondent's Ford claim was not ripe for decision, the Court of Appeals held that the fourth petition should be denied. In May 1997, after the Arizona state courts rejected his Ford claim, respondent returned for a fifth time to federal court, again arguing that he was incompetent to be executed. Because this filing was a "second or successive habeas corpus application," respondent's Ford claim should have been dismissed. I therefore respectfully dissent.
Unlike the Court, I begin with the plain language of the statute. Section 2244(b)(1) provides that a "claim presented in a second or successive habeas corpus application . . . that was presented in a prior application shall be dismissed." 28 U. S. C. § 2244(b)(1) (1994 ed., Supp. II). An "application" is a "putting to, placing before, preferring a request or petition
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