1. Whether the Ninth Circuit's practice of adjudicating the ultimate merits of a habeas petition at the COA stage, often on prejudice grounds, violates this Court's decision in Buck and 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c)(2).

2. Whether Chambers and its progeny preclude courts from engaging in credibility determinations when assessing the "trustworthiness" of excluded evidence.

Whether the Ninth Circuit's practice of adjudicating habeas petition merits at the COA stage violates Supreme Court precedent and statutory requirements, and whether courts can engage in credibility determinations when assessing excluded evidence's trustworthiness