Bowe v. United States · ¶121

Our decision in Hohn v. United States, 524 U. S. 236 (1998), is equally telling. That case concerned 28 U. S. C. § 2253(c), which requires a federal prisoner to obtain a certificate of appealability (COA) before he may appeal a district court's adverse decision in a § 2255 proceeding. The jurisdictional question before the Court was whether a court of appeals' denial of a COA is a “case” within the meaning of § 1254(1) and thus reviewable on certiorari. 524 U. S., at 241. Concluding that it is, the Court leaned heavily on a comparison between § 2253(c) and § 2244(b)(3)(E). The latter provision, the Court said, imposes a “clear limit” on our jurisdiction. Id., at 250. And, the Court reasoned, the existence of that “clear limit,” coupled with the absence of comparable language in § 2253(c), suggested that federal prisoners may seek certiorari to challenge an adverse COA decision. See id.,…

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