Details on today’s opinion
on Apr 24, 2012 at 10:35 am
Justice Ginsburg announced the only opinion of the day for a unanimous Court in Wood v. Milyard. The Court reversed the decision of the Tenth Circuit, holding that courts of appeals, like district courts, have the authority – but not the obligation – to raise a forfeited timeliness defense on their own initiative in exceptional cases. Because the state in this case had deliberately waived the statute of limitations defense, the court of appeals abused its discretion when it dismissed Wood’s habeas petition as untimely. Justice Thomas filed an opinion concurring in the judgment, which Justice Scalia joined.
