Can a state's determination that a claim lacks merit be used as grounds for federal habeas relief?

MultiRegion, United States of America

The following excerpt is from Loher v. Thomas, 825 F.3d 1103 (9th Cir. 2016):

A state court's determination that a claim lacks merit precludes federal habeas relief so long as fairminded jurists could disagree on the correctness of the state court's decision. Woods v. Etherton , U.S. , 136 S.Ct. 1149, 1151, 194 L.Ed.2d 333 (2016) (per curiam) (quoting Richter , 562 U.S. at 101, 131 S.Ct. 770 ). Such disagreement is possible here for at least three reasons.

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