George Johnson v. Steven Pinchak Attorney General of the State of New Jersey

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• finding that the exhaustion requirement was satisfied even though the merits of the claim were not considered because the petition was untimely
• holding federal habeas claim was procedurally defaulted even though state court, after finding claim barred by state procedural rule, referenced merits of claim as alternative holding
• explaining that an alternative holding does not undermine the central meaning of an opinion
• rejecting a claim as procedurally defaulted while explicit declining to determine whether the claim in question was structural
• “Even if a state court fails to rule on the merits of a claim, a properly presented claim will be considered exhausted.”
• “From the unambiguous language of Rule 3:22–12 and from the many prior cases that have consistently applied the time bar, it is clear that this procedural rule was an independent and adequate state ground establishing procedural default.”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).