Page:Cruz v. Arizona (2023).pdf/19

2 courts, that is not a conclusion we should be quick to draw—and ordinarily, we are not quick to draw it.

NAACP v. ''Alabama ex rel. Patterson'' illustrates how unprincipled a state-court decision must be before we treat it as inadequate. 357 U. S. 449 (1958). There, the NAACP asked the Alabama Supreme Court to vacate a civil contempt order as unconstitutional. That court denied review on the ground that the NAACP had improperly pursued a writ of certiorari, when it should have sought a writ of mandamus. Id., at 454–455. We held this procedural ruling inadequate because it was irreconcilable with the Alabama Supreme Court’s “past unambiguous holdings.” Id., at 456. Though a multitude of that court’s own precedents contradicted its ruling, one in particular stood out: The court had evaluated similar constitutional claims brought by a petitioner in cahoots with the Ku Klux Klan, even though he had also pursued a writ of certiorari. Id., at 456–457. The subtext of the Alabama Supreme Court’s decision unmistakably revealed its hostility toward the NAACP’s federal rights. See also Ford v. Georgia, 498 U. S. 411, 425 (1991) (Georgia Supreme Court decision was inadequate because it applied precedent that was inapplicable “by its own terms”); Barr v. City of Columbia, 378 U. S. 146, 149–150 (1964) (South Carolina Supreme Court ruling was inadequate because that court had proceeded differently in an “identical” case a few weeks later).

Today’s Court, while admitting that the novelty prong of inadequacy is “reserved for the rarest of situations,” ante, at 7, concludes that the Arizona Supreme Court’s application of Rule 32.1(g) falls in the same category as Patterson. I respectfully disagree. Unlike the state courts in cases like Patterson, the Arizona Supreme Court did not contradict its own settled law. Instead, it confronted a new question and gave an answer reasonably consistent with its precedent.

The ordinary rule in Arizona is that criminal defendants must present any constitutional challenges on direct review