Wilson v. Sellers

WILSON v. SELLERS, WARDEN

certiorari to the united states court of appeals for

the eleventh circuit No. 16–6855. Argued October 30, 2017—Decided April 17, 2018 Petitioner Marion Wilson was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. He sought habeas relief in Georgia Superior Court, claiming that his counsel's ineffectiveness during sentencing violated the Sixth Amendment. The court denied the petition, in relevant part, because it concluded that counsel's performance was not deficient and had not prejudiced Wilson. The Georgia Supreme Court summarily denied his application for a certificate of probable cause to appeal. Wilson subsequently filed a federal habeas petition, raising the same ineffective-assistance claim. The District Court assumed that his counsel was deficient but deferred to the state habeas court's conclusion that any deficiencies did not prejudice Wilson. The Eleventh Circuit affirmed. First, however, the panel concluded that the District Court was wrong to “look though” the State Supreme Court's unexplained decision and assume that it rested on the grounds given in the state habeas court's opinion, rather than ask what arguments “could have supported” the State Supreme Court's summary decision. The en banc court agreed with the panel's methodology. Held: A federal habeas court reviewing an unexplained state-court decision on the merits should “look through” that decision to the last related state-court decision that provides a relevant rationale and presume that the unexplained decision adopted the same reasoning. The State may rebut the presumption by showing that the unexplained decision most likely relied on different grounds than the reasoned decision below. Pp. 128–134. (a) In Ylst v. Nunnemaker , 501 U. S. 797, the Court held that where there has been one reasoned state judgment rejecting a federal claim, later unexplained orders upholding that judgment or rejecting the same claim are presumed to rest upon the same ground. In Ylst, where the last reasoned opinion on the claim explicitly imposed a procedural default, the Court presumed that a later decision rejecting the claim did not silently disregard that bar and consider the merits. Since Ylst, every Circuit to have considered the matter, but for the Eleventh Circuit, has applied a “look through” presumption even where the state courts did not apply a procedural bar to review, and most Circuits applied the presumption prior to Ylst. The presumption is

often realistic, for state higher courts often issue summary decisions when they have examined the lower court's reasoning and found nothing significant with which they disagree. The presumption also is often more efficiently applied than a contrary approach that would require a federal court to imagine what might have been the state court's supportive reasoning.

The State argues that Harrington v. Richter, 562 U. S. 86, controls here and that Ylst should apply, at most, where the federal habeas court is trying to determine whether a state-court decision without opinion rested on a state procedural ground or whether the state court reached the merits of a federal issue. Richter, however, did not directly concern the issue in this case—whether to “look through” the silent state higher court opinion to the lower court's reasoned opinion in order to determine the reasons for the higher court's decision. In Richter, there was no lower court opinion to look to. And Richter does not say that Ylst's reasoning does not apply in the context of an unexplained decision on the merits. Indeed, this Court has “looked though” to lower court decisions in cases involving the merits. See, e. g., Premo v. Moore, 562 U. S. 115, 123–133. Pp. 128–132. (b) The State's further arguments are unconvincing. It points out that the “look though” presumption may not accurately identify the grounds for a higher court's decision. But the “look through” presumption is not an absolute rule. Additional evidence that might not be sufi-fcient to rebut the presumption in a case like Ylst, where the lower court rested on a state-law procedural ground, would allow a federal court to conclude that counsel has rebutted the presumption in a case decided on the merits. For instance, a federal court may conclude that the presumption is rebutted where counsel identifies convincing alternative arguments for affirmance that were made to the State's highest court, or equivalent evidence such as an alternative ground that is obvious in the state-court record. The State also argues that this Court does not necessarily presume that a federal court of appeals' silent opinion adopts the reasoning of the court below, but that is a different context. Were there to be a “look through” approach as a general matter in that context, judges and lawyers might read those decisions as creating, through silence, binding circuit precedent. Here, a federal court “looks through” the silent decision for a specific and narrow purpose, to identify the grounds for the higher court's decision as the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act requires. Nor does the “look through” approach show disrespect for the States; rather, it seeks to replicate the grounds for the higher state court's decision. Finally, the “look through” approach is unlikely to lead state courts to write full opinions

where they would have preferred to decide summarily, at least not to any significant degree. Pp. 132–134. 834 F. 3d 1227, reversed and remanded. Breyer, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Roberts, C. J., and Kennedy, Ginsburg, Sotomayor, and Kagan, JJ., joined. Gorsuch, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Thomas and Alito, JJ., joined, post, p. 134.

Mark E . Olive argued the cause for petitioner. With him on the briefs were Brian S. Kammer , Marcia A. Widder , John H . Blume , Autumn N . Nero , and David J. Harth.

Sarah Hawkins Warren argued the cause for respondent. With her on the brief were Christopher M. Carr, Attorney General of Georgia, Andrew A. Pinson, Deputy Solicitor General, Beth A. Burton, Deputy Attorney General, and Sabrina D. Graham, Senior Assistant Attorney General.*

Justice Breyer delivered the opinion of the Court.

The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA) requires a prisoner who challenges (in a federal habeas court) a matter “adjudicated on the merits in

This is a straightforward inquiry when the last state court to decide a prisoner's federal claim explains its decision on the merits in a reasoned opinion. In that case, a federal habeas court simply reviews the specific reasons given by the state court and defers to those reasons if they are reasonable. We have affirmed this approach time and again. See, e. g., Porter v. McCollum, 558 U. S. 30, 39–44 (2009) (per cu-riam ); Rompilla v. Beard, 545 U. S. 374, 388–392 (2005); Wig-gins v. Smith, 539 U. S. 510, 523–538 (2003).

The issue before us, however, is more difficult. It concerns how a federal habeas court is to find the state court's reasons when the relevant state-court decision on the merits, say, a state supreme court decision, does not come accompanied with those reasons. For instance, the decision may consist of a one-word order, such as “affirmed” or “denied.” What then is the federal habeas court to do? We hold that the federal court should “look through” the unexplained decision to the last related state-court decision that does provide a relevant rationale. It should then presume that the unexplained decision adopted the same reasoning. But the State may rebut the presumption by showing that the unexplained affirmance relied or most likely did rely on different grounds

I

n 1997 a Georgia jury convicted petitioner, Marion Wilson, of murder and related crimes. After a sentencing hearing, the jury sentenced Wilson to death. In 1999 the Georgia Supreme Court affirmed Wilson's conviction and sentence, Wilson v. State, 271 Ga. 811, 525 S. E. 2d 339 (1999), and this Court denied his petition for certiorari, Wilson v. Georgia, 531 U. S. 838 (2000).

Wilson then filed a petition for habeas corpus in a state court, the Superior Court for Butts County. Among other things, he claimed that his counsel was “ineffective” during his sentencing, in violation of the Sixth Amendment. See Strickland v. Washington, 466 U. S. 668, 687 (1984) (setting forth “two components” of an ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claim: “that counsel's performance was deficient” and “that the deficient performance prejudiced the defense”). Wilson identified new evidence that he argued trial counsel should have introduced at sentencing, namely, testimony from various witnesses about Wilson's childhood and the impairment of the frontal lobe of Wilson's brain.

After a hearing, the state habeas court denied the petition in relevant part because it thought Wilson's evidence did not show that counsel was “deficient,” and, in any event, counsel's failure to find and present the new evidence that Wilson offered had not pre judiced Wilson. Wilson v. Terry , No. 2001–v–38 (Super. Ct. Butts Cty., Ga., Dec. 1, 2008), App. 60–61. In the court's view, that was because the new evidence was “inadmissible on evidentiary grounds,” was “cumulative of other testimony,” or “otherwise would not have, in reasonable probability, changed the outcome of the trial.” Id., at 61. Wilson applied to the Georgia Supreme Court for a certificate of probable cause to appeal the state habeas

Wilson subsequently filed a petition for habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia. He made what was essentially the same “ineffective assistance” claim. After a hearing, the District Court denied Wilson's petition. Wilson v. Humphrey , No. 5:10–cv– 489 (Dec. 19, 2013), App. 88–89. The court assumed that Wilson's counsel had indeed been “deficient” in failing adequately to investigate Wilson's background and physical condition for mitigation evidence and to present what he likely would have found at the sentencing hearing. Id., at 144. But, the court nonetheless deferred to the state habeas court's conclusion that these deficiencies did not “prejudice” Wilson, primarily because the testimony of many witnesses was “cumulative,” and because the evidence of physical impairments did not include any physical examination or other support that would have shown the state-court determination was “unreasonable.” Id., at 187; see Richter, 562 U. S., at 111–112.

Wilson appealed to the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Wilson v. Warden, 774 F. 3d 671 (2014). The panel first held that the District Court had used the wrong method for determining the reasoning of the relevant state court, namely, that of the Georgia Supreme Court (the final and highest state court to decide the merits of Wilson's claims). Id., at 678. That state-court decision, the panel conceded, was made without an opinion. But, the federal court was wrong to “look through” that decision and assume that it rested on the grounds given in the lower court's decision. Instead of “looking through” the decision to the state habeas court's opinion, the federal court should have asked what arguments “could have supported” the Georgia Supreme Court's refusal to grant permission to appeal. The panel

The Eleventh Circuit then granted Wilson rehearing en banc so that it could consider the matter of methodology. Wilson v. Warden, 834 F. 3d 1227 (2016). Ultimately six judges (a majority) agreed with the panel and held that its “could have supported” approach was correct. Id., at 1235. Five dissenting judges believed that the District Court should have used the methodology it did use, namely, the “look through” approach. Id., at 1242–1247, 1247–1269. Wilson then sought certiorari here. Because the Eleventh Circuit's opinion creates a split among the Circuits, we granted the petition. Compare id. , at 1235 (applying “could have supported” approach), with Grueninger v. Director, Va. Dept. of Corrections, 813 F. 3d 517, 525–526 (CA4 2016) (applying “look through” presumption post-Richter), and Cannedy v. Adams, 706 F. 3d 1148, 1156–1159 (CA9 2013) (same); see also Clements v. Clarke, 592 F. 3d 45, 52 (CA1 2010) (applying “look through” presumption pre-Richter); Bond v. Beard, 539 F. 3d 256, 289–290 (CA3 2008) (same); Mark v. Ault, 498 F. 3d 775, 782–783 (CA8 2007) (same); Joseph v. Coyle, 469 F. 3d 441, 450 (CA6 2006) (same).

We conclude that federal habeas law employs a “look through” presumption. That conclusion has parallels in this Court's precedent. In Ylst v. Nunnemaker , 501 U. S. 797 (1991), a defendant, convicted in a California state court of murder, appealed his conviction to the state appeals court where he raised a constitutional claim based on Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U. S. 436 (1966). 501 U. S., at 799–800. The appeals court rejected that claim, writing that “ `an objection based upon a Miranda violation cannot be raised for the first time on appeal.' ” Id., at 799. The defendant then similarly challenged his conviction in the California Supreme Court and on collateral review in several state courts (including

Subsequently, the defendant asked a federal habeas court to review his constitutional claim. Id., at 800. The higher state courts had given no reason for their decision. And this Court ultimately had to decide how the federal court was to find the state court's reasoning in those circumstances. Should it have “looked through” the unreasoned decisions to the state procedural ground articulated in the appeals court or should it have used a different method?

In answering that question Justice Scalia wrote the following for the Court:

“The problem we face arises, of course, because many formulary orders are not meant to convey anything as to the reason for the decision. Attributing a reason is therefore both difficult and artificial. We think that the attribution necessary for federal habeas purposes can be facilitated, and sound results more often assured, by applying the following presumption: Where there has been one reasoned state judgment rejecting a federal claim, later unexplained orders upholding that judgment or rejecting the same claim rest upon the same ground. If an earlier opinion `fairly appear[s] to rest primarily upon federal law,' we will presume that no procedural default has been invoked by a subsequent unexplained order that leaves the judgment or its consequences in place. Similarly where, as here, the last reasoned opinion on the claim explicitly imposes a procedural default, we will presume that a later decision rejecting the claim did not silently disregard that bar and consider the merits.” Id., at 803 (citation omitted).

Since Ylst, every Circuit to have considered the matter has applied this presumption, often called the “look through”

That is not surprising in light of the fact that the “look through” presumption is often realistic, for state higher courts often (but certainly not always, see Redmon v. John-son, 302 Ga. 763, 809 S. E. 2d 468 (2018)) write “denied” or “affirmed” or “dismissed” when they have examined the lower court's reasoning and found nothing significant with which they disagree.

Moreover, a “look through” presumption is often (but not always) more efficiently applied than a contrary approach— an approach, for example, that would require a federal habeas court to imagine what might have been the state court's supportive reasoning. The latter task may prove particularly difficult where the issue involves state law, such as state procedural rules that may constrain the scope of a reviewing court's summary decision, a matter in which a federal judge often lacks comparative expertise. See Ylst, supra, at 805.

The State points to a later case, Harrington v. Richter, 562 U. S. 86, which, it says, controls here instead of Ylst. In its view, Ylst should apply, at most, to cases in which the federal habeas court is trying to determine whether a state-court decision without opinion rested on a state procedural ground (for example, a procedural default) or whether the state court has reached the merits of a federal issue. In support, it notes that Richter held that the state-court decisions to which AEDPA refers include summary dispositions, i. e., decisions without opinion. Richter added that “deter-mining whether a state court's decision resulted from an un-

Richter then said that, where “a state court's decision is unaccompanied by an explanation, the habeas petitioner's burden still must be met by showing there was no reasonable basis for the state court to deny relief.” Ibid. And the Court concluded that, when “a federal claim has been presented to a state court and the state court has denied relief, it may be presumed that the state court adjudicated the claim on the merits in the absence of any indication or state-law procedural principles to the contrary.” Id., at 99.

In our view, however, Richter does not control here. For one thing, Richter did not directly concern the issue before us—whether to “look through” the silent state higher court opinion to the reasoned opinion of a lower court in order to determine the reasons for the higher court's decision. Indeed, it could not have considered that matter, for in Richter, there was no lower court opinion to look to. That is because the convicted defendant sought to raise his federal constitutional claim for the first time in the California Supreme Court (via a direct petition for habeas corpus, as California law permits). Id., at 96.

For another thing, Richter does not say the reasoning of Ylst does not apply in the context of an unexplained decision on the merits. To the contrary, the Court noted that it was setting forth a presumption, which “may be overcome when there is reason to think some other explanation for the state court's decision is more likely.” Richter, supra, at 99–100. And it referred in support to Ylst, 501 U. S., at 803.

Further, we have “looked through” to lower court decisions in cases involving the merits. See, e. g., Premo v. Moore , 562 U. S. 115, 123–133 (2011); Sears v. Upton, 561 U. S. 945, 951–956 (2010) (per curiam ). Indeed, we decided one of those cases, Premo , on the same day we decided Rich-ter. And in our opinion in Richter we referred to Premo .

The State's further arguments do not convince us. The State points out that there could be many cases in which a “look through” presumption does not accurately identify the grounds for the higher court's decision. And we agree. We also agree that it is more likely that a state supreme court's single word “affirm” rests upon alternative grounds where the lower state court decision is unreasonable than, e. g., where the lower court rested on a state-law procedural ground, as in Ylst. But that is why we have set forth a presumption and not an absolute rule. And the unreasonableness of the lower court's decision itself provides some evidence that makes it less likely the state supreme court adopted the same reasoning. Thus, additional evidence that might not be sufficient to rebut the presumption in a case like Ylst would allow a federal court to conclude that counsel has rebutted the presumption in a case like this one. For instance, a federal habeas court may conclude that counsel has rebutted the presumption on the basis of convincing alternative arguments for affirmance made to the State's highest court or equivalent evidence presented in its briefing to the federal court similarly establishing that the State's highest court relied on a different ground than the lower state court, such as the existence of a valid ground for affirmance that is obvious from the state-court record. The dissent argues that the Georgia Supreme Court's recent decision in

The State also points out that we do not necessarily presume that a silent opinion of a federal court of appeals adopts the reasoning of the court below. The dissent similarly invokes these “traditional rules of appellate practice.” See post, at 138–140, 143. But neither the State nor the dissent provides examples of similar context. Were we to adopt a “look through” approach in respect to silent federal appeals court decisions as a general matter in other contexts, we would risk judges and lawyers reading those decisions as creating, through silence, a precedent that could be read as binding throughout the circuit—just what a silent decision may be thought not to do. Here, however, we “look through” the silent decision for a specific and narrow purpose—to identify the grounds for the higher court's decision, as AEDPA directs us to do. See supra, at 124–126. We see no reason why the federal court's interpretation of the state court's silence should be taken as binding precedent outside this context, for example, as a statewide binding interpretation of state law.

Further, the State argues that the “look through” approach shows disrespect for the States. See Brief for Respondent 39 (“Wilson's approach to summary decisions reflects an utter lack of faith in the ability of the highest

Finally, the State argues that the “look through” approach will lead state courts to believe they must write full opinions where, given the workload, they would have preferred to have decided summarily. Though the matter is empirical, given the narrowness of the context, we do not believe that they will feel compelled to do so—at least not to any signif-cant degree. The State offers no such evidence in the many Circuits that have applied Ylst outside the procedural context. See supra, at 128.

For these reasons, we reverse the Eleventh Circuit's judgment and remand the case for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

It is so ordered.

Justice Gorsuch, with whom Justice Thomas and Justice Alito join, dissenting.

After a state supreme court issues a summary order sustaining a criminal conviction, should a federal habeas court reviewing that decision presume it rests only on the reasons found in a lower state court opinion? The answer is no. The statute governing federal habeas review permits no such “look through” presumption. Nor do traditional principles of appellate review. In fact, we demand the opposite presumption for our work—telling readers that we independently review each case and that our summary affirmances

Even so, some good news can be found here. While the Court agrees to adopt a “look through” presumption, it does so only after making major modifications to petitioner's proposal. The Court tells us that the presumption should count for little in cases “where the lower state court decision is unreasonable” because it is not “likely” a state supreme court would adopt unreasonable reasoning. Ante, at 132. In cases like that too, the Court explains, federal courts remain free to sustain state court convictions whenever reasonable “ground[s] for affirmance [are] obvious from the state-court record” or appear in the parties' submissions in state court or the federal habeas proceeding. Ibid. Exactly right, and exactly what the law has always demanded. So while the Court takes us on a journey through novel presumptions and rebuttals, it happily returns us in the end very nearly to the place where we began and belonged all along.

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To see the problem with petitioner's presumption, start with the statute. The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA) governs federal review of state criminal convictions. It says a federal court may not grant habeas relief overturning a state court conviction “with respect to any claim that was adjudicated on the merits in State court proceedings” unless (among other things) the petitioner can show that the state court proceedings “resulted in a decision that was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law.” 28 U. S. C. § 2254(d)(1). As the text and our precedent make clear, a federal habeas court must focus its review on the

The upshot of these directions is clear. Even when the final state court decision “is unaccompanied by an explanation, the habeas petitioner's burden still must be met by showing there was no reasonable basis for the state court to deny relief.” Richter, 562 U. S., at 98 (emphasis added). And before a federal court can disregard a final summary state court decision, it “must determine what arguments or theories . . . could have supporte[d] the state court's decision; and then it must ask whether it is possible fairminded jurists could disagree that those arguments or theories are inconsistent with the holding in a prior decision of this Court.” Id., at 102 (emphasis added). Far from suggesting federal courts should presume a state supreme court summary order rests on views expressed in a lower court's opinion, then, AEDPA and our precedents require more nearly the opposite presumption: federal courts must presume the order rests on any reasonable basis the law and facts allow.

If this standard seems hard for a habeas petitioner to overcome, “that is because it was meant to be.” Ibid. In AEDPA, Congress rejected the notion that federal habeas review should be “a substitute for ordinary error correction.” Id., at 102–103. Instead, AEDPA “reflects the view that habeas corpus is a `guard against extreme malfunctions in the state criminal justice systems.' ” Id., at 102 (emphasis added). “The reasons for this approach are familiar. `Federal habeas review of state convictions frustrates both the States' sovereign power to punish offenders and their good-faith attempts to honor constitutional rights.' It `disturbs the State's significant interest in repose for concluded litigation, denies society the right to punish some admitted offend-

Petitioner and the Court today labor to distinguish these authorities, but I don't see how they might succeed. They point to the fact that in Richter no state court had issued a reasoned order, while here a lower state court did. See Brief for Petitioner 28–30; ante, at 131. But on what account of AEDPA or Richter does that factual distinction make a legal difference? Both the statute and our precedent explain that federal habeas review looks to the final state court decision, not any decision preceding it. Both instruct that to dislodge the final state court decision a petitioner must prove it involved an unreasonable application of federal law. And to carry that burden in the face of a final state court summary decision, Richter teaches that the petitioner must show no lawful basis could have reasonably supported it. To observe that some final state court summary decisions are preceded by lower court reasoned opinions bears no more relevance to the AEDPA analysis than to say that some final state court summary decisions are issued on Mondays.1

1 Petitioner and the Court separately suggest that Premo v. Moore , 562 U. S. 115 (2011), supports their position because the Court there did not follow Richter 's approach. See Brief for Petitioner 40; ante, at 131–132. But the following sentences from Moore (with emphasis added) are clear proof it did: “ `[t]he question is whether there is any reasonable argument that counsel satisfied Strickland's deferential standard,' ” 562 U. S., at 123 (quoting Richter); “[t]o overcome the limitation imposed by § 2254(d), the Court of Appeals had to conclude that both findings [i. e., no deficient performance and no prejudice] would have involved an unreasonable application of clearly established law,” ibid. (citing Richter); “[t]he state court here reasonably could have determined that [no prejudice existed],” id., at 129. Moore simply found that a reasonable basis—provided by a state postconviction court—could (and did) support the denial of habeas relief. Id., at 123. It did not rely on an unreasonable basis provided by a lower court to grant habeas relief, as petitioner seeks to have us do. Moore thus accords with AEDPA and our precedents, while petitioner's presumption does not.

Nor is that the end of the problems with petitioner's “look through” presumption. It also defies traditional rules of appellate practice that informed Congress's work when it adopted AEDPA and that should inform our work today. McQuiggin v. Perkins, 569 U. S. 383, 398, n. 3 (2013). Appellate courts usually have an independent duty to review the facts and law in the cases that come to them. Often they see errors in lower court opinions. But often, too, they may affirm on alternative bases either argued by the parties or (sometimes) apparent to them on the face of the record. See, e. g., SEC v. Chenery Corp., 318 U. S. 80, 88 (1943) (noting “the settled rule that, in reviewing the decision of a lower court, it must be affirmed if the result is correct `al-

Petitioner and the Court offer only this tepid reply. They suggest that their “look through” presumption seeks to refect “realistic[ally]” the basis on which the state summary decision rests. See Brief for Petitioner 44; ante, at 130. But to the extent this is a claim that their presumption comports realistically with longstanding traditions of appellate practice, it is wrong for the reasons just laid out. In fact, applying traditional understandings of appellate practice, this Court has refused to presume that state appellate courts even read lower court opinions rather than just the briefs before them. See Baldwin v. Reese, 541 U. S. 27, 31 (2004).

If the argument here is instead an empirical claim that the “look through” presumption comports realistically with what happened in this case and others like it, it is wrong too. Petitioner was convicted in Georgia. And during the pendency of this case in our Court, the Georgia Supreme Court issued an order confirming that lower courts in that State may not “presum[e] that when this Court summarily denies an application to appeal an order denying habeas corpus relief, we necessarily agree with everything said in that order.” Redmon v. Johnson, 302 Ga. 763, 768, 809 S. E. 2d 468, 472 (2018). The court explained that it has long followed just this rule for all the reasons you'd expect. It independently reviews the facts and law in each habeas case. If it finds something it thinks might amount to a consequential error, the court sets the case for argument and usually prepares a full opinion. But “[o]n many occasions,” the court finds only “inconsequential errors.” Id., at 765–766, 809 S.

The presumption is especially unrealistic in another way. The Court and petitioner presume that a summary order by a state supreme court adopts all the specific reasons expressed by a lower state court. In doing so, they disregard a far more realistic possibility: that the state supreme court might have relied only on the same grounds for the denial of relief as did the lower court without necessarily adopting all its reasoning. Here, the lower state court denied petitioner's Strickland claim on the grounds that counsel's perform-

373 U. S. 83 (1963), the habeas court makes factual or legal errors regarding the petitioner's proof of one element but correctly concludes (or the record clearly shows) that the petitioner has not proved another required element. An appeal would result in this Court's affirming the habeas court's judgment.

· The habeas court misstates a legal standard in one part of its order, but

recites the standard correctly elsewhere in the order, and it is clear that the judgment is correct applying the right standard.

· In addressing a habeas petition with multitudinous claims, the habeas

court's order flails to explicitly rule on a claim, but the record shows that the claim is entirely meritless.” Redmon, 302 Ga., at 766–767, 809 S. E. 2d, at 471 (some citations omitted).

While the “look through” presumption cannot be squared with AEDPA's text, traditional rules, or Georgia's actual practice, petitioner and the Court contend it is at least consistent with Ylst v. Nunnemaker , 501 U. S. 797 (1991). See Brief for Petitioner 38; ante, at 128–131. But it is not. In habeas review of state court convictions, federal courts may only review questions of federal law. So if a state court decision rejecting a petitioner's federal law claim rests on a state procedural defect (say the petitioner filed too late under state rules), federal courts generally have no authority to reach the federal claim. Ylst simply teaches that, if a lower state court opinion expressly relied on an independent and adequate state ground, we should presume a later state appellate court summary disposition invoked it too. See 501 U. S., at 801, 803. The decision thus seeks to protect state court decisions from displacement and reaches a result consistent with the traditional rule that a summary order invokes all fairly presented bases for affirmance.

Neither can Ylst be reimagined today as meaning anything more. The case came years before AEDPA's new standards for habeas review and can offer nothing useful about them. The work of interpreting AEDPA's demands was left instead to Richter. And, as we've seen, Richter forecloses petitioner's presumption. Of course, and as petitioner stresses, Richter didn't overrule Ylst. But that's for the simple reason that Ylst continues to do important, if limited, work in the disposition of procedural default claims because “AEDPA

Uncomfortable questions follow too from any effort to reimagine Ylst. If we were to take Ylst as suggesting that summary decisions presumptively rely only on the reasons found in lower court opinions, wouldn't we have to overrule our many precedents like Wynne and Mandel that explicitly reject any such presumption? Wouldn't circuit courts have to discard their own similar precedents? See supra, at 138– 139. Consistency would seem to demand no less.

The only answer petitioner and the Court offer is no answer at all. Consistency, they suggest, is overrated. Everywhere else in the law we should retain the usual rule that a summary affirmance can't be read as presumptively resting on the lower court's reasons. They encourage us to use Ylst only as a tool for making a special exception for AEDPA cases: here and here alone should we adopt petitioner's “look through” presumption. Brief for Petitioner 18, 20; ante, at 133 (stating that “we `look through' the silent decision for a specific and narrow purpose” under AEDPA). But just stat-ing this good-for-habeas-only rule should be enough to reject it. Summary orders that happen to arise in state habeas cases should receive no less respect than those that arise anywhere else in the law. If anything, they should receive more respect, because federal habeas review of state court decisions “ `intrudes on state sovereignty to a degree matched by few exercises of federal judicial authority.' ” Richter, 562 U. S., at 103.

* * *

Petitioner's novel presumption not only lacks any provenance in the law, it promises nothing for its trouble. Consider the most obvious question it invites, one suggested by the facts of our own case: what happens when a state supreme court issues an order explaining that its summary

Consider, too, the questions that would follow in the unlikely event a general order like the one from the Georgia Supreme Court wasn't considered enough to overcome petitioner's presumption. Quickly federal courts would be forced to decide: does the “look through” presumption survive even when a state supreme court includes language in every summary order explaining that its decision does not necessarily adopt the reasoning below? What if the state supreme court says something slightly different but to the same effect, declaring in each case that it has independently considered the relevant law and evidence before denying relief? And if we start dictating what state court disclaimers should look like and where they should appear, what exactly

Apart from whether a (general or case-specific) order from a state supreme court suffices to overcome petitioner's presumption, there's the question what else might. Say a lower state court opinion includes an error but the legal briefs or other submissions presented to the state supreme court supply sound alternative bases for affirmance. In those circumstances, should a federal habeas court really presume that the state supreme court chose to repeat the lower court's mistake rather than rely on the solid grounds argued to it by the parties? What if a sound alternative basis for af-firmance is presented for the first time in the parties' federal habeas submissions: are we to presume that the state supreme court was somehow less able to identify a reasonable basis for affirmance than federal habeas counsel?

Here at least the Court does offer an answer. Petitioner insists that federal courts should presume that state supreme court summary orders rest on unreasonable lower state court opinions even in the face of reasonable alternative arguments presented to the state supreme court or in federal habeas proceedings. But seeming to recognize the unreasonableness of this request, the Court opts to reshape radically petitioner's proposed presumption before adopting it. First, the Court states that “it is more likely that a state supreme court's single word `affirm' rests upon alternative grounds where the lower state court decision is unreasonable.” Ante, at 132. Then, the Court proceeds to explain that “a federal habeas court may conclude that counsel has rebutted the presumption on the basis of convincing alternative arguments for affirmance made to the State's highest

The Court's reshaping of petitioner's presumption reveals just how futile this whole business really is. If, as the Court holds, the “look through” presumption can be rebutted “where the lower state court decision is unreasonable,” ibid., it's hard to see what good it does. Petitioner sought to assign unreasonable lower court opinions to final state court summary decisions. To hear now that essentially only reasonable (and so sustainable) lower state court opinions are presumptively adopted by final state court summary decisions will surely leave him sour on this journey and federal habeas courts scratching their heads about the point of it all. And if, as the Court also tells us, a federal habeas court can always deny relief on a basis that is apparent from the record or on the basis of alternative arguments presented by the parties in state or federal proceedings, then the “look through” presumption truly means nothing and we are back where we started. With the Court's revisions to petitioner's presumption, a federal habeas court is neither obliged to look through exclusively to the reasons given by a lower state court nor required to presume that a summary order adopts those reasons.

All this is welcome news of a sort. The Court may promise us a future of foraging through presumptions and rebuttals. But at least at the end of it we rest knowing that what was true before remains true today: a federal habeas court should look at all the arguments presented in state and federal court and examine the state court record. And a federal habeas court should sustain a state court summary decision denying relief if those materials reveal a basis to do so reasonably consistent with this Court's holdings. Exactly what a federal court applying the statute and Richter has

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Today, petitioner invites us to adopt a novel presumption that AEDPA, traditional principles of appellate review, and Georgia practice all preclude. It's an invitation that requires us to treat the work of state court colleagues with disrespect we would not tolerate for our own. And all to what end? None at all, it turns out. As modified by the Court, petitioner's presumption nearly drops us back where we began, with only trouble to show for the effort. Respectfully, I would decline the invitation to this circuitous journey and just affirm.