Call
Scalia closed his opinion with a general note of criticism regarding the Ninth Circuit: "It is a regrettable reality that some federal judges like to second-guess state courts. The only way this Court can ensure observance of Congress's abridgement of their habeas power is to perform the unaccustomed task of reviewing utterly fact-bound decisions that present no disputed issues of law. We have often not shrunk from that task, which we have found particularly needful with regard to decisions of the Ninth Circuit... Today we have shrunk, letting stand a judgment that once again deprives California courts of that control over the State's administration of criminal justice which federal law assures."