Ryan v. Poyson

Issue: (1) Whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit erred in interpreting Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 41(d)(1) to permit an appellate court to withhold its mandate indefinitely and thereby retain jurisdiction long after the Supreme Court denied a petition for certiorari; and (2) whether the lower court erred in holding that the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, 28 U.S.C. § 2254, permits a federal court to disregard a state court"s language and instead presume constitutional error based on the federal court"s perception of state-court error in other cases.