---
kind: "section"
citation: "28 U.S.C. § 2264"
title: "28"
title_heading: "Judiciary and Judicial Procedure"
number: "2264"
heading: "Scope of Federal review; district court adjudications"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/28/2264"
units:
  - "Part VI — Particular Proceedings"
  - "Chapter 154 — Special Habeas Corpus Procedures in Capital Cases"
---

# §2264. Scope of Federal review; district court adjudications

- (a) Whenever a [State](/usc/28/3002.md?p=14) prisoner under capital sentence files a petition for habeas corpus relief to which this chapter applies, the district [court](/usc/28/3002.md?p=2) shall only consider a claim or claims that have been raised and decided on the merits in the [State](/usc/28/3002.md?p=14) [courts](/usc/28/3002.md?p=2), unless the failure to raise the claim properly is—
  - (1) the result of [State](/usc/28/3002.md?p=14) action in violation of the Constitution or laws of the [United States](/usc/28/3002.md?p=15);
  - (2) the result of the Supreme [Court](/usc/28/3002.md?p=2)’s recognition of a new Federal right that is made retroactively applicable; or
  - (3) based on a factual predicate that could not have been discovered through the exercise of due diligence in time to present the claim for [State](/usc/28/3002.md?p=14) or Federal post-conviction review.
- (b) Following review subject to subsections [(a)](/usc/28/2254.md?p=a), [(d)](/usc/28/2254.md?p=d), and [(e)](/usc/28/2254.md?p=e) of section 2254, the [court](/usc/28/3002.md?p=2) shall rule on the claims properly before it.

## Source credit

(Added Pub. L. 104–132, title I, § 107(a), Apr. 24, 1996, 110 Stat. 1223.)

## Notes

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Effective Date

Section applicable to cases pending on or after Apr. 24, 1996, see section 107(c) of Pub. L. 104–132, set out as a note under section 2261 of this title.