Opinion of the Court
The Ninth Circuit did not have jurisdiction to rule on whether a victim’s family members wearing buttons with a photo of the deceased to the trial of the alleged murderer prejudices the jury.
Thefollowing is excerpted from the summary of the unanimous opinion written byJustice Thomas, as prepared by the Court Reporter of Decisions: TheNinth Circuit improperly concluded that the California Court of Appeal’sdecision was contrary to or an unreasonable application of clearly establishedFederal law as determined by this Court. Because“‘clearly established Federal law’ … refers to the holdings, as opposed tothe dicta, of this Court’s decisionsas of the time of the relevant State-court decision, Williams v. Taylor (2000), Federal habeasrelief may be granted here if the California Court of Appeal’s decision wascontrary to or involved an unreasonable application of…
