Cite as: 540 U. S. 375 (2003)
Opinion of the Court
ernment. Cf. Stewart v. Martinez-Villareal, 523 U. S. 637, 641-642 (1998) (allowing the Government to obtain review of a decision that a habeas corpus application is not "second or successive"). It would close our doors to a class of habeas petitioners seeking review without any clear indication that such was Congress' intent. Cf. Felker v. Turpin, 518 U. S. 651, 660-661 (1996). And any such conclusion would prove difficult to reconcile with the basic principle that we "read limitations on our jurisdiction to review narrowly." Utah v. Evans, 536 U. S. 452, 463 (2002).
We conclude that we have the power to review Castro's claim, and we turn to the merits of that claim.
III
Federal courts sometimes will ignore the legal label that a pro se litigant attaches to a motion and recharacterize the motion in order to place it within a different legal category. See, e. g., Raineri v. United States, 233 F. 3d 96, 100 (CA1 2000); United States v. Detrich, 940 F. 2d 37, 38 (CA2 1991); United States v. Miller, 197 F. 3d 644, 648 (CA3 1999); Raines v. United States, 423 F. 2d 526, 528, n. 1 (CA4 1970); United States v. Santora, 711 F. 2d 41, 42 (CA5 1983); United States v. McDowell, 305 F. 2d 12, 14 (CA6 1962); Henderson v. United States, 264 F. 3d 709, 711 (CA7 2001); McIntyre v. United States, 508 F. 2d 403, n. 1 (CA8 1975) (per curiam); United States v. Eatinger, 902 F. 2d 1383, 1385 (CA9 1990) (per curiam); United States v. Kelly, 235 F. 3d 1238, 1242 (CA10 2000); United States v. Jordan, 915 F. 2d 622, 625 (CA11 1990); United States v. Tindle, 522 F. 2d 689, 693 (CADC 1975) (per curiam). They may do so in order to avoid an unnecessary dismissal, e. g., id., at 692-693, to avoid inappropriately stringent application of formal labeling requirements, see Haines v. Kerner, 404 U. S. 519, 520 (1972) (per curiam), or to create a better correspondence between the substance of a pro se motion's claim and its underlying
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