Rawls v. United States’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 district ·

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 4 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The statute does not bar resort to habeas corpus if ‘the remedy by motion is inadequate or ineffective to test the legality of his detention.’ There are a very few cases in which prisoners have been allowed to use habeas corpus on the ground that this test has been met. Each of those cases seems to have been incorrectly decided. Despite two early holdings to the contrary, the fact that the distance between the place of confinement and the sentencing court is great, and that much time will be consumed in making the motion and perfecting the appeal does not make the statutory remedy inadequate or ineffective. Nor, despite the decision of one case later reversed, 2 3 can the statutory remedy be bypassed because a co-defendant was unsuccessful in obtaining relief under § 2255. A few cases have held habeas corpus available after defendant has had a § 2255 motion denied. 4 This too is wrong. The court for the district in which the prisoner is confined cannot be permitted to second guess the sentencing court, and the court of appeals to which it is responsible. The statutory remedy is adequate and effective ‘to test the legality of his detention’ which is all that the statute requires, even though it is found on the § 2255 motion that the detention is legal. “If relief is possible under § 2255. it is the exclusive remedy and habeas corpus is barred for a federal prisoner. The writ may be used only by those who are not within the scope of § 2255, such as a person committed for menta”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. In re Galante