Whether the Ninth Circuit's denial of a certificate of appealability on the petitioner's ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claim is contrary to this Court's jurisprudence

QUESTION PRESENTED This Court has repeatedly held that to receive a certificate of appealability (COA), a habeas petitioner need only show that “jurists of reason could disagree with the district court’s resolution of his constitutional claims or that jurists could conclude the issues presented are adequate to deserve encouragement to proceed further.” Buck v. Davis, 1387 S. Ct. 759, 773 (2017). Before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Bastidas argued that his lawyer unreasonably failed to investigate and present an alibi defense at his robbery trial, and that trial counsel’s failure prejudiced him. He supported each element of his claim with unrefuted evidence, and also demonstrated that 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d) did not bar relief on his claim. And yet the Ninth Circuit denied him a COA. Is the Ninth Circuit’s denial of a COA on Bastidas’s ineffective assistance of counsel claim contrary to this Court’s jurisprudence? 1