Calderon

Arthur Calderon, Warden of the California State Prison at San Quentin, and James Gomez, Director of the California Department of Corrections, (Petitioners) seek a -writ of mandamus directing the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California to grant Petitioners’ motion for summary dismissal of 32 claims in an action of habeas corpus brought against Petitioners by Blufford Hayes, Jr. (Hayes), a prisoner at San Quentin prison. In its April 10, 1996 order, the district court denied the Petitioners’ motion for summary dismissal of Hayes’ claims, holding that although the California Supreme Court held these claims to be proeedurally barred, the grounds upon which that court reached its decision were not independent and adequate as applied to state habeas petitions filed before 1993 and federal habeas petitions relating to the same conviction filed after 1993 and therefore did not foreclose federal court consideration of the claims at issue.

Petitioners urge us to direct the district court to vacate its judgment through the issuance of a writ of mandamus, a drastic remedy to be used only in extraordinary cases. Kerr v. U.S. Dist. Court, 426 U.S. 394, 402 , 96…