Cite as: 537 U. S. 322 (2003)
Thomas, J., dissenting
would not defer to state-court determinations of fact if "the factfinding procedure employed by the State court was not adequate to afford a full and fair hearing," 28 U. S. C. § 2254(d)(2) (1994 ed.), "the material facts were not adequately developed at the State court hearing," § 2254(d)(3), or "the applicant did not receive a full, fair, and adequate hearing," § 2254(d)(6). The removal of these exceptions forecloses the use of marginal procedural complaints—such as a delay between voir dire and a Batson hearing—to determine whether or "how much" a federal habeas court will defer to state-court factfinding.
Section 2254(e)(1) simply cannot be read to contain an implied sliding scale of deference. I do not understand the Court to disagree with this view, however, as its dicta does not actually purport to interpret the text of § 2254(e)(1).4
II
Because § 2254(e)(1) supplies the governing legal standard, petitioner must provide "clear and convincing" evidence of purposeful discrimination in order to obtain a COA. Petitioner's constitutional claim under Batson turns on this fact and "reasonable jurists could debate," ante, at 336 (internal
4 I do, however, agree with the majority that the Court's decisions in Hernandez v. New York, 500 U. S. 352 (1991), and Purkett v. Elem, 514 U. S. 765 (1995) (per curiam), can be helpful in guiding a federal habeas court deciding a claim under Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U. S. 79 (1986). For instance, both cases confirm that Batson step three turns on an evaluation of the prosecutor's proffered race-neutral justifications for the peremptory challenges at issue. Purkett, supra, at 768-769; Hernandez, 500 U. S., at 364-365 (plurality opinion); id., at 372 (O'Connor, J., concurring in judgment); see also Batson, supra, at 98, n. 21. Additionally, because Hernandez's clear-error standard is less demanding of a criminal defendant than § 2254(e)(1) is of a habeas applicant, a federal habeas court can deny relief on § 2254(e)(1) grounds if it determines it would do so when reviewing the same facts for clear error. Cf. Marshall v. Lonberger, 459 U. S. 422, 434- 435 (1983) ("We greatly doubt that Congress . . . intended to authorize broader federal review of state court credibility determinations than are authorized in appeals within the federal system itself").
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