USFS’s purported failure to consider and apply that standard. Chenery probably would have been directly at issue if (1) the district court— instead of resolving the matter on exhaustion grounds — had reached the merits of the USFS’s argument that the USFS in fact properly applied the 2000 BAS standard and endorsed this view; and (2) we then subsequently affirmed on that basis. But that is not the situation here. The district court did not reach the merits. See Aplt. Opening Br. Attach, at 39 (“The Plaintiffs failed to exhaust the administrative process, and because exhaustion of the administrative process is mandatory, the Court will not address the merits of the Plaintiffs’ claims that the USFS did not apply the ‘best available science’ standard”); see also Aplt. Opening Br. at 32-33 (<HOLDING>). As noted above, we also have expressly
recognizing that the district court did not reach the merits holding that either the district court or the court of appeals must issue a certificate of appealability on both the merits and the procedural bar before we can consider the merits of a claim that the district court held to be procedurally barred holding that the federal habeas corpus court could reach the merits of a due process claim even though there was no contemporaneous objection in state court trial where the state habeas corpus court reached the merits rather than rely on the procedural default defense holding that if the state court addresses both the procedural default and the merits of a federal claim in the alternative a federal court should apply the state procedural bar and decline to reach the merits of the claim recognizing that sanctions are collateral to the merits of the case and may be considered even after the merits are no longer before the district court