In the federal habeus petition, this is the hardest way to get relief. But, basically what it means is, in simple terms, that the federal rule of law is the floor. It’s the minimum amount of constitutional rights you’re allowed to have. And so, if the state law goes below that, if it dips below that in any way, then the federal court should step in and force the state to increase the amount of rights that you had and change whatever they did in the other court. The federal habeus has a lot of timing issues where you could run out of time if it’s not filed correctly.

Also, it has to be a federal constitutional issue, meaning, something like the Bill of Rights. And also, it has to be based on a Supreme Court case. So, if the Third Circuit, where we live, has case law on point that says something countered what Pennsylvania law says that’s not enough. It has to be something from the United States Supreme Court, and it has to be that the holding of the Supreme Court case is based on a federal constitutional law claim in order for you to be successful in a federal habeus.