In the case of Gary Lawrence v. Florida, 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a federal law suspending the statute of limitations for habeas corpus petitions does not apply while post-conviction relief appeals are pending in state court. The petitioner, Gary Lawrence was convicted and sentenced to death in Florida State Court for murder and robbery charges. After exhausting his direct appeal options within the state system, he filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus with the Federal District Court which was dismissed as untimely under Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA). He argued that AEDPA's one-year limitation period should have been tolled during pendency of his certiorari petition before U.S Supreme Court following denial by State Supreme court on collateral review but this argument was rejected by both District court & Eleventh Circuit upon appeal. When brought before US supreme court it held that time spent on certiorari petition from state-court is not counted towards tolling period thus affirming lower courts' decision.

In the dissenting opinion for Gary Lawrence v. Florida, Justice Ginsburg argued that the one-year limitation period should not apply to capital defendants who are pursuing federal habeas corpus relief while their state post-conviction proceedings are still ongoing. She contended that this interpretation of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) is more consistent with its text, history, and purpose. The majority's decision would unfairly penalize defendants for delays in state court proceedings over which they have no control and could potentially deny them access to federal review entirely if those proceedings take longer than a year. Furthermore, she pointed out that most states do not allow prisoners to file successive petitions for post-conviction relief so there is little risk of abuse or delay tactics from defendants trying to extend their deadline by continuously filing new petitions.