AEDPA (Habeas Corpus)

The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA) imposes strict limits on federal courts' power to grant habeas relief to a prisoner convicted in state court. District courts and courts of appeals have sometimes chafed under these restraints, and when they have strayed too far from the modest role that AEDPA prescribes, we have summarily reversed their decisions.

— Supreme Court of the United States, McCarthy v. Hernandez, 608 U.S. ___ (2026)

What Is the AEDPA (Habeas Corpus)?

Congress passed the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act in 1996, sharply limiting the power of federal courts to second-guess state criminal convictions on habeas review. Under §2254(d), a federal court may not grant habeas relief unless the state court's decision (1) was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law as determined by the Supreme Court, or (2) was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented. The standard is deliberately demanding: a state court's ruling need not be correct — only not unreasonable. AEDPA also imposes a one-year statute of limitations for filing federal habeas petitions (§2244) and restricts successive petitions (§2244(b)).