Earlier this year, Bondurant associates Jeff Chen and Matthew Sellers filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in Bowe v. United States, a federal habeas case arising out of the Eleventh Circuit. Jeff and Matthew submitted the brief, which supports Petitioner Michael Bowe, on behalf of a group of legal scholars, including Steve Vladeck, the Agnes Williams Sesquicentennial Professor of Federal Courts at the Georgetown University Law Center, who also co-authored the brief.
The Supreme Court heard argument in Bowe last week, during which Mr. Bowe’s counsel cited and summarized the amicus brief in response to questioning from several Justices about Congress’s power over the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction.
Bowe highlights conflicting interpretations of a statute that limits repeat habeas corpus petitions. Several federal courts, including the Eleventh Circuit, have applied the statute to federal prisoners, which has effectively foreclosed relief to people like Mr. Bowe who are serving time for convictions that are no longer legally valid.
Jeff and Matthew’s amicus brief addresses a neighboring statutory provision that strips the Supreme Court of jurisdiction to review gatekeeping determinations regarding repeat habeas corpus petitions. After describing the constitutional limits on Congress’s power to take jurisdiction away from the Supreme Court, the brief warns that construing the jurisdiction-stripping provision to apply to Mr. Bowe’s case would raise serious constitutional concerns.
Read the full brief here.
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