Peyton v. Rowe

This case concerns the scope of 28 U. S. C. § 2241 (c)(3), which specifies that the United States District Courts may issue writs of habeas corpus on behalf of prisoners who are “in custody in violation of the Constitution . . . of the United States.” The question presented is whether a district court may entertain a petition for a writ of habeas corpus from a prisoner incarcerated under consecutive sentences who claims that a sentence that he is scheduled to serve in the future is invalid because of a deprivation of rights guaranteed by the Constitution. The Court considered this issue in…