Cite as: 538 U. S. 202 (2003)
Opinion of the Court
volved the interpretation of § 2251, not § 2254, which is at issue here. And, as the Courts of Appeals have recognized, see Isaacs, 300 F. 3d, at 1242-1246 (collecting and discussing authorities), the Court's ruling in McFarland must be understood in light of the Court's concern to protect the right to counsel contained in 21 U. S. C. § 848(q)(4)(B). McFarland, 512 U. S., at 855 ("This interpretation is the only one that gives meaning to the statute as a practical matter"); id., at 856 ("Requiring an indigent capital petitioner to proceed without counsel in order to obtain counsel thus would expose him to the substantial risk that his habeas claims never would be heard on the merits. Congress legislated against this legal backdrop in adopting § 848(q)(4)(B), and we safely assume that it did not intend for the express requirement of counsel to be defeated in this manner"); id., at 857 ("Even if the District Court had granted McFarland's motion for appointment of counsel and had found an attorney to represent him, this appointment would have been meaningless unless McFarland's execution also was stayed"). Thus, McFarland cannot carry the day for respondent.
Similarly, the Ninth Circuit's and respondent's reliance on Hohn v. United States, 524 U. S. 236 (1998), is misplaced. In Hohn, we considered whether this Court has jurisdiction to review a court of appeals' denial of a certificate of appealability (COA). To answer that question we focused on the text of 28 U. S. C. § 1254, which "confines our jurisdiction to '[c]ases in' the courts of appeals." Hohn, supra, at 241 (citing Nixon v. Fitzgerald, 457 U. S. 731, 741-742 (1982)). Although we concluded that an application for a COA constituted a case within the meaning of § 1254, we did not provide an all-purpose definition of the term "case." Thus, while Hohn might support an argument that respondent's request for appointment of counsel and his motion for a stay of execution began a "case" that could be reviewed on appeal, see, e. g., Gosier, 175 F. 3d, at 506 ("[A] request for counsel is a 'case' in the sense that it is subject to appellate review (and,
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