Mohamad Youssef Hammoud v. Serkou Ma’at, Warden

Under 28 U.S.C. § 2255, federal prisoners can collaterally challenge their convictions on any ground cognizable on collateral review. 28 U.S.C. § 2255(h) limits the types of claims that permit prisoners to make successive attacks so that prisoners can only bring claims that indicate factual innocence or that rely on constitutional-law decisions made retroactive by this Court. 28 U.S.C. § 2255(e), however, also allows inmates to collaterally challenge their convictions outside this process through a traditional habeas action under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 whenever it “appears that the remedy by [§ 2255] motion is inadequate or ineffective to test the legality of [their] detention.” The question presented is: Whether federal inmates who did not receive a meaningful opportunity to be heard on a substantial actual-innocence claim—because established circuit precedent stood firmly against them previously and they were not appointed counsel at their first opportunity to present the claim in a § 2255 motion— can show that the remedy by § 2255 motion was inadequate or ineffective to test the legality of their detention and thus proceed to a habeas corpus petition pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2241.