Postconviction Remedies, Retroactivity, and Montgomery v. Louisiana’s Other New Rule

The U.S. Supreme Court has turned its attention back to the law of habeas corpus, with a string of new decisions that emphasize the limited scope of federal habeas relief. But focusing one’s sights on only those decisions would overlook what has transpired at the Supreme Court in recent years in state habeas cases coming directly to the Supreme Court from the state postconviction courts. Montgomery v. Louisiana, in particular, shifted the division of power between the Supreme Court and state postconviction courts for questions conventionally considered to be questions of state law. Montgomery, on the surface, is a decision about retroactivity and the