The US Supreme Court agreed to consider a jurisdictional bar that prevents the justices from providing relief from invalid convictions.
The case granted Friday is technical and involves a prisoner’s “second or successive” motion for postconviction relief.
The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 made it more difficult to bring these motions, requiring that any claims that were previously presented in a prior request be dismissed.
The courts of appeal have split on whether that rule applies to both state and federal prisoners challenging their convictions, or only state ones. The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh ...