In a per curiam ruling today in (Mays v. Hines), the Supreme Court summarily reversed a Sixth Circuit ruling that granted habeas relief to a Tennessee prisoner who claimed that his trial counsel provided ineffective assistance by failing to try to blame someone else for the murder he was convicted of. Only Justice Sotomayor registered her dissent, and she failed to provide a word of explanation.

The Court’s opinion documents the “overwhelming evidence” of Anthony Hines’s guilt and marvels:

Nowhere in its 10-page discussion … did the [Sixth Circuit] majority consider the substantial evidence linking him to the crime: His flight in a bloody shirt; his possession of the victim’s keys, wallet, and car; his recurring association with knives; or his everchanging stories about tussling with imaginary assailants.

The Court points out that the state court “reasonably rejected the ‘farfetched’ possibility that Jones [the supposed alternative suspect] committed and self-reported a gruesome murder, in the presence of a witness, at a place where he was well known to the staff” and faults the Sixth Circuit majority for hypothesizing such a “fanciful theory.” The Sixth Circuit’s “approach plainly violated Congress’ prohibition on disturbing state-court judgments on federal habeas review absent an error that lies beyond any possibility for fairminded disagreement.” (Quotation marks and citation omitted.)

It shouldn’t surprise you that the judges in the Sixth Circuit majority are Chief Judge R. Guy Cole Jr. (appointed by Clinton) and Judge Helene White (originally a Clinton nominee, but appointed by George W. Bush as part of a deal with Michigan’s Democratic senators). In dissent was GWB appointee Raymond Kethledge (who was part of that deal on White).