Laws: Cases and Codes : U.S. Code : Title 28 : Section 2244
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U.S. Code as of:
01/19/04
Section 2244 - Notes
SOURCE
(June 25, 1948, ch. 646, 62 Stat. 965; Pub. L. 89-711, Sec. 1, Nov.
2, 1966, 80 Stat. 1104; Pub. L. 104-132, title I, Secs. 101, 106,
Apr. 24, 1996, 110 Stat. 1217, 1220.)
HISTORICAL AND REVISION NOTES
This section makes no material change in existing practice.
Notwithstanding the opportunity open to litigants to abuse the
writ, the courts have consistently refused to entertain successive
"nuisance" applications for habeas corpus. It is derived from H.R.
4232 introduced in the first session of the Seventy-ninth Congress
by Chairman Hatton Sumners of the Committee on the Judiciary and
referred to that Committee.
The practice of suing out successive, repetitious, and unfounded
writs of habeas corpus imposes an unnecessary burden on the courts.
See Dorsey v. Gill, 1945, 148 F.2d 857, 862, in which Miller, J.,
notes that "petitions for the writ are used not only as they should
be to protect unfortunate persons against miscarriages of justice,
but also as a device for harassing court, custodial, and
enforcement officers with a multiplicity of repetitious, meritless
requests for relief. The most extreme example is that of a person
who, between July 1, 1939, and April 1944 presented in the District
Court 50 petitions for writs of habeas corpus; another person has
presented 27 petitions; a third, 24; a fourth, 22; a fifth, 20. One
hundred nineteen persons have presented 597 petitions - an average
of 5."
SECTION REFERRED TO IN OTHER SECTIONS
This section is referred to in sections 2255, 2262, 2266 of this
title.
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