Brent Ray Brewer v. Bobby Lumpkin, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division
I. Where a state court and federal court deny a habeas claim on contradictory grounds, do their conflicting rulings suggest that "reasonable jurists would find the district court's assessment of the constitutional claims debatable or wrong," Slack v. McDaniel, 529 U.S. 473, 484 (2000), such that a certificate of appealability should issue?
II. Does a state court's divided rejection of a federal constitutional claim demonstrate that reasonable jurists would debate the claim's merits such that a certificate of appealability should issue, as three Justices of this Court and the Seventh Circuit have recognized, or may a federal court decline to issue a certificate of appealability in such circumstances, as held by the Fifth Circuit below, the Eighth Circuit, and district courts in the First and Eleventh Circuits?
whether-contradictory-state-federal-court-rulings-demonstrate-debatability-of-constitutional-claim