Cite as: 531 U. S. 4 (2000)
Opinion of the Court
that respondent had not yet received a written order denying his 1995 motion to vacate the conviction. Since respondent could not appeal the denial absent such written order; and since, in the panel's view, "a state-court petition is 'pending' from the time it is first filed until finally disposed of and further appellate review is unavailable under the particular state's procedures," 199 F. 3d, at 120; the panel concluded that respondent's 1995 motion was still "pending" for purposes of § 2244(d)(2). Finally (and this is the sole point on which we granted certiorari), the panel held that respond-ent's 1995 motion was "properly filed" within the meaning of § 2244(d)(2) because it complied with those rules "governing" whether "an application for state post-conviction relief [is] recognized as such" under state law. Id., at 123. It rejected petitioner's contention that the application was not properly filed because the claims it contained were subject to two procedural bars under New York law: a bar against raising an issue that had been "previously determined on the merits upon an appeal from the judgment," N. Y. Crim. Proc. Law § 440.10(2)(a) (McKinney 1994), and a bar against raising a claim that was available on direct appeal but was not raised because of the defendant's "unjustifiable failure," § 440.10(2)(c).1 199 F. 3d, at 123. We granted certiorari. 529 U. S. 1065 (2000).
1 The cited provisions read in full as follows: "Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision one [which sets forth various grounds upon which a court may vacate its earlier judgment], the court must deny a motion to vacate a judgment when:
"(a) The ground or issue raised upon the motion was previously determined on the merits upon an appeal from the judgment, unless since the time of such appellate determination there has been a retroactively effective change in the law controlling such issue; or
. . . . . "(c) Although sufficient facts appear on the record of the proceedings underlying the judgment to have permitted, upon appeal from such judgment, adequate review of the ground or issue raised upon the motion, no
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