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Habeas Corpus-Federal Courts-Exhaustion Of State Remedies, E. W. Rothe, Jr.

Michigan Law Review

Petitioner's writ of habeas corpus, alleging denial of due process of law in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, was quashed on the merits by an inferior Florida court whose action was affirmed without opinion by the Florida Supreme Court. It was impossible to ascertain whether the affirmance was on the merits or on the ground that, under Florida law, habeas corpus was not the proper procedure to raise the due process issue. A later decision by the Florida Supreme Court clearly established that the prior case had been decided on the merits of the constitutional question, and that habeas corpus …