Cite as: 524 U. S. 236 (1998)
Scalia, J., dissenting
2253(c)(1), the statutorily required certificate was called a "certificate of probable cause" rather than a certificate of appealability, but the effect of failure to obtain it was precisely the same: The case could not proceed to the court of appeals. On an attempt to obtain review of denial of the certificate in this Court, we held that since petitioner's "case was never 'in' the court of appeals, for want of a certificate," we lacked jurisdiction under § 1254(1). Ibid.
The Court concedes that House is squarely on point but opts to overrule it because its "conclusion was erroneous," ante, at 251. The Court does not dispute that petitioner's § 2255 action was never in the Court of Appeals; its overruling of House is instead based on the proposition that petitioner's request for a COA is, in and of itself, a "case" within the meaning of § 1254(1), see ante, at 241-242, 246-249, and that that case was "in" the Court of Appeals and hence can be reviewed here, ante, at 241-246. Most of the Court's analysis is expended in the effort to establish that petitioner made his request for a COA to the Court of Appeals as such, rather than to the circuit judges in their individual capacity, ibid. Even that effort is unsuccessful, since it comes up against the pellucid language of AEDPA to the contrary. Section 102 does not permit application for a COA to a court of appeals; it states that the application must be made to a "circuit justice or judge." That this means precisely what it says is underscored by § 103 of AEDPA, which amends Rule 22 of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure: "If [a COA] request is addressed to the court of appeals, it shall be deemed addressed to the judges thereof and shall be considered by a circuit judge or judges as the court deems appropriate." As though drafted in anticipatory refutation of the Court's countertextual holding today, the Advisory Commit-tee's Notes on Rule 22 explicitly state that "28 U. S. C. § 2253 does not authorize the court of appeals as a court to grant a certificate of probable cause." 28 U. S. C. App., p. 609.
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