Cite as: 526 U. S. 838 (1999)
Stevens, J., dissenting
the Illinois Supreme Court. Id., at 1199 (citing Gomez v. Acevedo, 106 F. 3d 192, 195-196 (CA7 1997) (which cites in turn People v. Coleman, 168 Ill. 2d 509, 522-523, 660 N. E. 2d 919, 927 (1995))). The Illinois courts, in other words, are prepared to stand behind the merits of their decisions regarding constitutional criminal procedure once a trial court and an appellate court have passed on them. No state procedural ground independently supports such decisions, so federal courts do not undercut Illinois' procedural rules by reaching the merits of the constitutional claims resolved therein. See Coleman, 501 U. S., at 736-738.
We ordinarily defer to a federal court of appeals' interpretation of state-law questions. See Bishop v. Wood, 426 U. S. 341, 346-347 (1976). The Court today nevertheless refuses to conclude that the Illinois rule "discourages the filing of certain petitions" (or even certain claims in petitions), and surmises instead that the rule does nothing more than announce the State Supreme Court's desire to decide for itself which cases it will consider on the merits. Ante, at 846. This analysis strikes me as unsatisfactory. I would, consistent with the Seventh Circuit's view, read the Illinois rule as dissuading the filing of fact-intensive claims of error that fail to present any issue of broad significance. I would also deduce from the rule that Illinois prisoners need not present their claims in discretionary review petitions before raising them in federal court.
The Court's decision to the contrary is unwise. It will impose unnecessary burdens on habeas petitioners; it will delay the completion of litigation that is already more protracted than it should be; and, most ironically, it will undermine federalism by thwarting the interests of those state supreme courts that administer discretionary dockets. If, as the Court has repeatedly held, the purpose of our waiver doctrine is to cultivate comity by respecting state procedural rules, then I agree with the Court of Appeals that we should not create procedural obstacles when state prison-
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