Hernandez

MEMORANDUM **

Gabriel Louis Hernandez, a California state prisoner, appeals the district court’s *545 dismissal of his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 petition challenging his conviction and 25-years-to-life sentence for inflicting injury on a co-habitant and using methamphetamine. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2253 , and we affirm.

Hernandez contends the district court erred in concluding that he had procedurally defaulted his as-applied constitutional challenge to California Evidence Code section 1370. He first argues that federal review is warranted because the state court discussed the merits of the evidentiary objection in addition to finding it procedurally barred. He is incorrect. California’s contemporaneous objection rule is an adequate procedural bar. Chein v. Shumsky, 323 F.3d 748, 751-52 (9th Cir.2003). Even if a state court reaches the merits of a federal claim in the alternative, federal review is barred “as long as the state court explicitly invokes a state procedural bar rule as a separate basis for decision.” Harris v. Reed, 489 U.S. 255 , 264 n. 10, 109 S.Ct. 1038 , 103 L.Ed.2d 308 (1989); see also Loveland v. Hatcher, 231 F.3d 640, 643-44 (9th…