Hall Street Associates, L.l.c. v. Mattel, Inc

Decided March 25, 2008. David Hackett Souter delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 06-989 · 552 U.S. 576 (2008) · Cited 1,661 times

Holding

N either Avena nor the President’s Memorandum constitutes directly enforceable federal law that pre-empts state limitations on the filing of successive habeas petitions.

The Court’s statement of the holding, from the opinion’s syllabus. The syllabus is prepared by the Reporter of Decisions and is not part of the opinion of the Court — read the official opinion for authority.

How the Justices voted

Decided 6–3.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• Dean Witter Reynolds Inc. v. Byrd · 470 U.S. 213 (1985)
• Wilko v. Swan · 346 U.S. 427 (1953)
• Southland Corp. v. Keating · 465 U.S. 1 (1984)
• Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital v. Mercury Construction Corp. · 460 U.S. 1 (1983)
• First Options of Chicago, Inc. v. Kaplan · 514 U.S. 938 (1995)
• Mitsubishi Motors Corp. v. Soler Chrysler-Plymouth, Inc. · 473 U.S. 614 (1985)
• Volt Info. Sciences, Inc. v. Bd. of Trustees of Leland Stanford Jr. U. · 489 U.S. 468 (1989)
• Federal Communications Commission v. Beach Communications, Inc. · 508 U.S. 307 (1993)
• Rodriguez De Quijas v. Shearson/American Express, Inc. · 490 U.S. 477 (1989)
• Buckeye Check Cashing, Inc. v. Cardegna · 546 U.S. 440 (2006)
• Allied-Bruce Terminix Cos., Inc. v. Dobson · 513 U.S. 265 (1995)
• Red Cross Line v. Atlantic Fruit Co. · 264 U.S. 109 (1924)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• Badgerow v. Walters · 596 U.S. 1 (2022)
• Stolt-Nielsen S. A. v. AnimalFeeds International Corp. · 559 U.S. 662 (2010)
• BG Group, PLC v. Republic of Argentina · 572 U.S. 25 (2014)
• Oxford Health Plans LLC v. Sutter · 569 U.S. 564 (2013)
• Vaden v. Discover Bank · 556 U.S. 49 (2009)
• Kucana v. Holder · 558 U.S. 233 (2010)
• Compucredit Corp. v. Greenwood · 565 U.S. 95 (2012)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

Explore from here

David Hackett Souter’s profile · All Supreme Court opinions · The Supreme Court

Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (2008). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).