Thacker v. Dretke’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

8 federal appellate ·

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 25 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “new rule” in violation of the non-retroactivity principle of Teague v. Lane, 489 U.S. 288, 310 , 109 S.Ct. 1060 , 103 L.Ed.2d 334 (1989). See Thacker, 396 F.3d at 617 n. 15 ("Although [the habeas petitioner] argues at length that applying Sim- ' mans in the way he proposes would merely be an unremarkable application of existing precedent, this is plainly not the case. Given the volume of caselaw in this circuit holding that, despite Simmons, the Fourteenth and Eighth Amendments do not require Texas to allow discussion of parole eligibility in capital trials, a decision to the contrary here would undoubtedly constitute a 'new rule’ under Teague and is therefore barred.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Oliver v. Quarterman

2. “Scheffer ... merely holds that the exclusion of polygraph results is not disproportionate or arbitrary in light of a defendant’s not unbridled right to present evidence in his defense. To hold that it extends to, and invalidates, all restrictions on discussion of parole eligibility would undoubtedly be a bold new step, not an “unremarkable” application of settled precedent. Thacker’s Sixth Amendment argument, therefore, is so plainly barred by Teague that we cannot conceive that reasonable jurists would disagree.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Gomez v. Quarterman