054381P.pdf   08/24/2009  Bruce Earl Ward  v.  Larry Norris
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:  05-4381
                          and No:  07-2015
   U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas - Pine Bluff   
   [PUBLISHED] [Wollman, Author, with Melloy and Gruender, Circuit Judges]
   Prisoner case - habeas. District court did not err in concluding that
   Ward's Rule 60(b) and Rule 59 motions constituted second or successive
   habeas petitions as the motions, in substance, comprise a claim of
   ineffective or incompetent representation by federal habeas counsel; as a
   result the requested relief was barred by AEDPA, and the district court
   did not err in dismissing the motions; claims on appeal concerning
   ineffective assistance of counsel amounted to an impermissible
   broadening of the claims presented to the state courts and the federal
   district court, and appellate review would be limited to the facts related to
   the argument made to the state courts; with respect to Ward's claim that
   the trial court's disparate treatment of defense counsel's requests to
   approach the bench deprived him of a fair trial, however ill-founded the
   trial court's reasoning for its actions may have been, its rulings on those
   requests did not reflect actual or presumed bias rising to the level of a
   constitutional violation or a structural error. Judge Melloy, concurring in
   part and dissenting in part.