Cite as: 540 U. S. 375 (2003)
Opinion of Scalia, J.
own mistake lie is regrettable, but incomparably less than the injustice of producing prejudice through the court's intervention.
The risk of harming the litigant always exists when the court recharacterizes into a first § 2255 motion a claim that is procedurally or substantively deficient in the manner filed. The court essentially substitutes the litigant's ability to bring his merits claim now, for the litigant's later ability to bring the same claim (or any other claim), perhaps with stronger evidence. For the later § 2255 motion will then be burdened by the limitations on second or successive petitions imposed by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, 110 Stat. 1214. A pro se litigant whose non-§ 2255 motion is dismissed on procedural grounds and one whose recharacterized § 2255 claim is denied on the merits both end up as losers in their particular actions, but the loser on procedure is better off because he is not stuck with the consequences of a § 2255 motion that he never filed.
It would be an inadequate response to this concern to state that district courts should recharacterize into first § 2255 motions only when doing so is (1) procedurally necessary (2) to grant relief on the merits of the underlying claim. Ensuring that these conditions are met would often enmesh district courts in fact- and labor-intensive inquiries. It is an inefficient use of judicial resources to analyze the merits of every claim brought by means of a questionable procedural vehicle simply in order to determine whether to recharacterize— particularly in the common situation in which entitlement to relief turns on resolution of disputed facts. Moreover, even after that expenditure of effort the district court cannot be certain it is not prejudicing the litigant: the court of appeals may not agree with it on the merits of the claim.
In other words, even fully informed district courts that try their best not to harm pro se litigants by recharacterizing may nonetheless end up doing so because they cannot predict and protect against every possible adverse effect that may
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