Robert Michael Fall v. United States

Whether a court of appeals may deny a certificate of appealability under 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c) solely because circuit precedent forecloses the claim, even though other courts have reached the opposite constitutional conclusion and the certificate would permit review of a denied evidentiary hearing rather than immediate merits relief.

Whether Strickland v. Washington's presumption of reasonable strategy may be applied, without an evidentiary hearing under 28 U.S.C. § 2255(b), to an omission that counsel's own sworn statement attributes to a failure to investigate rather than to an informed tactical choice.