Abe Fortas

“ Nothing in the order entered by the Court of Appeals, however, indicates that the appeal was duly considered on its merits as Nowakowski requires in cases where a certificate of probable cause has been granted. Although Nowakowski does not necessarily require that the Court of Appeals give the parties full opportunity to submit briefs and argument in an appeal which, despite the issuance, of the certificate of probable cause, is frivolous, enough must appear to demonstrate the basis for the court's summary action. ”

“ His path has been long partly because of the inevitable delays in our court processes and partly because of the requirement that he exhaust state remedies. [13] He should not be thwarted now and required to bear the consequences of assertedly unlawful conviction simply because the path has been so long that he has served his sentence. ”

“ The federal habeas corpus statute requires that the applicant must be 'in custody' when the application for habeas corpus is filed. This is required not only by the repeated references in the statute, [9] but also by the history of the great writ. [10] Its province, shaped to guarantee the most fundamental of all rights, [11] is to provide an effective and speedy instrument by which judicial inquiry may be had into the legality of the detention of a person. ”