Jackson, J., dissenting
postconviction relief deliberately and clearly, thereby unequivocally expressing its intent to do so. See Holland v. Florida, 560 U. S. 631, 646 (2010); infra, at 25–28.
All this means that today (as in 1948) the saving clause is best interpreted as allowing for the filing of a habeas petition under §2241 where a claim that was cognizable prior to AEDPA cannot be brought under §2255, unless Congress has clearly expressed its intent to foreclose that particular claim.
B
That brings us to the situation at issue here. When Congress amended §2255 by enacting AEDPA, it legislated against a legal background in which a federal prisoner could bring a statutory innocence claim in a §2255 petition. The majority does not dispute this. See ante, at 18–19. Nor could it, because this Court made crystal clear in 1974 in Davis that statutory innocence claims are legally cognizable in a §2255 motion. 417 U. S., at 343–347.[1]
Moreover, prior to AEDPA’s enactment, a federal prisoner could bring such a postconviction claim of statutory innocence in a successive petition. This Court had generally restricted successive postconviction filings by the 1990s, but a prisoner who had previously filed at least one petition could still file another one in order to assert innocence. That was because any bar to the filing of a successive petition was typically lifted if enforcing that bar would result in a “miscarriage of justice.” McCleskey v. Zant, 499 U. S. 467, 494–495 (1991); Hertz & Liebman §28.4[g], at 1757; see Brief for Respondent 22–24. And under our settled
- ↑ In this regard, Davis merely acknowledged what had been true since the founding. See infra, at 31–34; Davis v. United States, 417 U. S. 333, 343–345 (1974); see also L. Litman, Legal Innocence and Federal Habeas, 104 Va. L. Rev. 417, 488, n. 334 (2018) (“[A]t the time Section 2255 was enacted, federal prisoners could raise a claim, in successive petitions, that they were mistakenly convicted or sentenced because of an error of statutory interpretation”).
