Supreme Court of the United States / October Term 2007

Jose Ernesto Medellin v. Texas

Decided March 25, 2008. John Glover Roberts Jr. delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 06-984 · 552 U.S. 491 (2008) · Cited 548 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.

Sanchez-Llamas v. Oregon · 548 U.S. 331 (2006)
Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer · 343 U.S. 579 (1952)
Breard v. Greene · 523 U.S. 371 (1998)
Dames & Moore v. Regan · 453 U.S. 654 (1981)
Whitney v. Robertson · 124 U.S. 190 (1888)
American Ins. Assn. v. Garamendi · 539 U.S. 396 (2003)
United States v. Percheman · 32 U.S. 51 (1833)
Bacardi Corp. of America v. Domenech · 311 U.S. 150 (1940)
Edye v. Robertson · 112 U.S. 580 (1884)
Sumitomo Shoji America, Inc. v. Avagliano · 457 U.S. 176 (1982)
El Al Israel Airlines, Ltd. v. Tsui Yuan Tseng · 525 U.S. 155 (1999)
Kolovrat v. Oregon · 366 U.S. 187 (1961)
Clark v. Allen · 331 U.S. 503 (1947)
Asakura v. City of Seattle · 265 U.S. 332 (1924)
United States v. Pink · 315 U.S. 203 (1942)
United States v. Belmont · 301 U.S. 324 (1937)
Zicherman Ex Rel. Estate of Kole v. Korean Air Lines Co. · 516 U.S. 217 (1996)
Trans World Airlines, Inc. v. Franklin Mint Corp. · 466 U.S. 243 (1984)
Geofroy v. Riggs · 133 U.S. 258 (1890)
Cook v. United States · 288 U.S. 102 (1933)
Olympic Airways v. Husain · 540 U.S. 644 (2004)
Nielsen v. Johnson · 279 U.S. 47 (1929)
Brecht v. Abrahamson · 507 U.S. 619 (1993)
Engle v. Isaac · 456 U.S. 107 (1982)
Phillips Petroleum Co. v. Shutts · 472 U.S. 797 (1985)
Jerome B. Grubart, Inc. v. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. · 513 U.S. 527 (1995)
Jama v. Immigration and Customs Enforcement · 543 U.S. 335 (2005)
Oetjen v. Central Leather Co. · 246 U.S. 297 (1918)
Air France v. Saks · 470 U.S. 392 (1985)
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld · 548 U.S. 557 (2006)

Cited by

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

Zivotofsky v. Kerry · 576 U.S. 1 (2015)
Bond v. United States · 572 U.S. 844 (2014)
Monasky v. Taglieri · 589 U.S. 68 (2020)
Jam v. International Finance Corp. · 586 U.S. 199 (2019)
Abbott v. Abbott · 560 U.S. 1 (2010)
Nasrallah v. Barr · 590 U.S. 573 (2020)
Lozano v. Montoya Alvarez · 572 U.S. 1 (2014)
BG Group, PLC v. Republic of Argentina · 572 U.S. 25 (2014)
Water Splash, Inc. v. Menon · 581 U.S. 271 (2017)
Bank Markazi v. Peterson · 578 U.S. 212 (2016)
Espinoza v. Montana Dept. of Revenue · 591 U.S. 464 (2020)
Hernández v. Mesa · 589 U.S. 93 (2020)
Arizona v. United States · 567 U.S. 387 (2012)
Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic · 606 U.S. 357 (2025)

Official text

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

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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).