Cite as: 532 U. S. 374 (2001)
Souter, J., dissenting
must do so. Fundamental fairness could be achieved just as well—indeed, better—by holding that the rendering jurisdiction must provide a means for challenge when enhancement is threatened or has been imposed. Such a constitutional rule, combined with a rule that any sentence already imposed must be adjusted accordingly, would prevent sentencing hearings from being routinely complicated by inquiries into prior convictions, and would locate those inquiries where they can best be conducted: in the rendering jurisdiction. It would also avoid a possible gap in protection that would result from using § 2255 (and in state-court cases, § 2254) for this inappropriate purpose—arising from the fact that, as discussed above, § 2254 cannot be used to remedy ineffective assistance of postconviction counsel. (We have left open the question whether such ineffective assistance can establish a constitutional violation, see Coleman v. Thompson, 501 U. S. 722, 755 (1991).) But § 2255 cannot possibly be the means of relief.
For these reasons, I join the opinion of the Court only in part.
Justice Souter, with whom Justice Stevens and Justice Ginsburg join, dissenting.
In Custis v. United States, 511 U. S. 485 (1994), we held that a federal defendant facing an enhanced sentence on the basis of prior state convictions under the Armed Career Criminal Act of 1984 (ACCA), 18 U. S. C. § 924(e), could not, with one exception, challenge the constitutionality of the underlying state convictions at his federal sentencing proceeding. Custis was thus a precursor of the case before us now; Custis is not, however, compelling authority for today's disposition. Although the Court's opinion in Custis struck me as portending more than it strictly held, a reading of the case free of portent was in fact the understanding of one Member of the Custis majority: "Custis presented a forum question. The issue was where, not whether, the defendant could attack
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