Chavez v. State

438 P.3d 381, 364 Or. 654
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedApril 4, 2019
DocketCC 111114537 (SC S064968)
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 438 P.3d 381 (Chavez v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chavez v. State, 438 P.3d 381, 364 Or. 654 (Or. 2019).

Opinion

Id. at 306, 109 S.Ct. 1060 (quoting Mackey , 401 U.S. at 682-83, 91 S.Ct. 1160 (Harlan, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part)). After noting the different considerations at issue in cases arising on direct appeal and in cases arising on collateral review, Teague concluded that, as a general rule, new federal constitutional rules will not apply retroactively to cases that had become **667final before the new constitutional rule was announced. Id. at 307-08, 109 S.Ct. 1060. Teague also recognized two exceptions to that "general rule of nonretroactivity": (1) "if [the rule] places certain kinds of primary, private individual conduct beyond the power of the criminal law-making authority to proscribe" and (2) if the rule is a "watershed rul[e] of criminal procedure" that "alter[s] our understanding of the bedrock procedural elements" essential to a fair proceeding. 489 U.S. at 307, 311, 109 S.Ct. 1060 (internal quotation marks omitted; emphasis omitted). See Penry v. Lynaugh , 492 U.S. 302, 330, 109 S.Ct. 2934, 106 L.Ed.2d 256 (1989) (adopting the plurality's reasoning in Teague ).

Teague arose in the context of a federal habeas corpus proceeding, and it was unclear initially whether the general rule of nonretroactivity and the two exceptions that Teague announced reflected an interpretation of the federal habeas corpus statutes or the scope of the underlying federal constitutional right. The Court gave partial answers to that question first in Danforth and later in Montgomery v. Louisiana , --- U.S. ----, 136 S.Ct. 718, 193 L.Ed.2d 599 (2016).

The Court held in Danforth that Teague 's general rule of nonretroactivity reflects the relief available under the federal habeas corpus statutes. 552 U.S. at 282, 128 S.Ct. 1029. In reaching that conclusion, the Court started from the proposition that "the source of a 'new rule' is the Constitution itself, not any judicial power to create new rules of law. Accordingly, the underlying right necessarily pre-exists our articulation of the new rule." Id. at 271, 128 S.Ct. 1029. The Court explained:

"What we are actually determining when we assess the 'retroactivity' of a new rule is not the temporal scope of a newly announced right, but whether a violation of the right that occurred prior to the announcement of the new rule will entitle a criminal defendant to the relief sought."

Id.

Building on that proposition, the Court explained in Danforth that, while the federal habeas statute gives federal courts the authority to grant writs of habeas corpus, it "leaves unresolved many important questions about the scope of available relief." Id. at 278, 128 S.Ct. 1029. The Court observed that **668it "has interpreted that congressional silence-along with the statute's command to dispose of habeas petitions 'as law and justice require'-as an authorization to adjust the scope of the writ in accordance with equitable and prudential considerations." Id. (internal citations omitted). The Court concluded in Danforth that Teague 's general rule of nonretroactivity was "plainly grounded" in that authority, as were the Court's decisions requiring exhaustion of state court remedies and a showing of cause and prejudice before *390raising an issue in federal habeas that had not been preserved in the state courts. Id.

The Court later held in Montgomery that " Teague 's conclusion establishing the retroactivity of new substantive rules [that come within the first Teague exception] is best understood as resting upon constitutional premises." 136 S.Ct. at 729. The Court reasoned that the concerns that led to Teague 's first exception required, as a matter of federal constitutional law, that new rules that come within that exception be applied retroactively. Id. It followed, the Court held in Montgomery , "that when a new substantive rule of constitutional law [that comes within the first Teague exception] controls the outcome of a case, the Constitution requires state collateral review courts to give retroactive effect to that rule."Id.

Danforth and Montgomery thus identify two classes of new federal constitutional rules. For new constitutional rules that come within the first Teague exception, retroactivity is an inherent part of the right; state courts must give retroactive effect to the right. Montgomery

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Bluebook (online)
438 P.3d 381, 364 Or. 654, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chavez-v-state-or-2019.