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Opinion of the Court
so "on the merits and for lack of diligence." App. G to Pet. for Cert. 1.
Approximately one week later, in early June 1998, Saffold filed a petition for habeas corpus in the Federal District Court. The District Court noted that AEDPA required Saf-fold to have filed his petition by April 24, 1997. It recognized that the statute gave Saffold extra time by tolling its limitations period while Saffold's application for state collateral review was "pending" in the state courts. But the District Court decided that Saffold's petition was "pending" only while the state courts were actively considering it, and that period did not include the intervals between the time a lower state court had denied Saffold's petition and the time he had filed a further petition in a higher state court. In Saffold's case those intervals amounted to five days (between the trial court and intermediate court) plus 41/2 months (between the intermediate court and Supreme Court), and those intervals made a critical difference. Without counting the intervals as part of the time Saffold's application for state collateral review was "pending," the tolling period was not long enough to make Saffold's federal habeas petition timely. Hence the District Court dismissed the petition.
The Ninth Circuit reversed. It included in the "pending" period, and hence in the tolling period, the intervals between what was, in effect, consideration of a petition by a lower state court and further consideration by a higher state court—at least assuming a petitioner's request for that further higher court consideration was timely. Saffold v. New-land, 250 F. 3d 1262, 1266 (2001). It added that Saffold's petition to the California Supreme Court was timely despite the 41/2 months that had elapsed since the California Court of Appeal decision. That is because the California Supreme Court had denied Saffold's petition, not only because of "lack of diligence" but also "on the merits," a circumstance that showed the California Supreme Court had "applied its untimeliness bar only after considering to some degree the
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