TYLER v. CAIN, WARDEN
No. 00-5961
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued April 16, 2001—Decided June 28, 2001
533 U.S. 656
Charles E. F. Heuer argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief were Harry F. Connick and Val M. Solino.
James A. Feldman argued the cause for the United States as amicus curiae urging affirmance. With him on the brief were Acting Solicitor General Underwood, Acting Assistant Attorney General Keeney, Deputy Solicitor General Dreeben, and Nina Goodman.*
JUSTICE THOMAS delivered the opinion of the Court.
Under Cage v. Louisiana, 498 U.S. 39 (1990) (per curiam), a jury instruction is unconstitutional if there is a reasonable likelihood that the jury understood the instruction to allow conviction without proof beyond a reasonable doubt.1 In
During a fight with his estranged girlfriend in March 1975, petitioner Melvin Tyler shot and killed their 20-day-old daughter. A jury found Tyler guilty of second-degree murder, and his conviction was affirmed on appeal. After sentencing, Tyler assiduously sought postconviction relief. By 1986, he had filed five state petitions, all of which were denied. See State ex rel. Tyler v. Blackburn, 494 So. 2d 1171 (La. 1986); State v. Tyler, 446 So. 2d 1226 (La. 1984); State ex rel. Tyler v. State, 437 So. 2d 1142 (La. 1983); State v. Tyler, 430 So. 2d 92 (La. 1983); State ex rel. Tyler v. Maggio, 428 So. 2d 483 (La. 1982). He next filed a federal habeas petition, which was unsuccessful as well. Tyler v. Butler, No. 88cv4929 (ED La.), aff‘d, Tyler v. Whitley, 920 F. 2d 929 (CA5 1990). After this Court‘s decision in Cage, Tyler continued his efforts. Because the jury instruction defining reasonable doubt at Tyler‘s trial was substantively identical to the instruction condemned in Cage, Tyler filed a sixth state postconviction petition, this time raising a Cage claim. The State District Court denied relief, and the Louisiana Supreme Court affirmed. State ex rel. Tyler v. Cain, 684 So. 2d 950 (La. 1996).
In early 1997, Tyler returned to federal court. Seeking to pursue his Cage claim, Tyler moved the United States
The District Court proceeded to the merits of Tyler‘s claim and held that, although Cage should apply retroactively, App. 5-7 (citing Humphrey v. Cain, 138 F. 3d 552 (CA5 1998) (en banc)), Tyler was not entitled to collateral relief. Under AEDPA, a state prisoner can prevail only if the state court‘s decision “was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States.”
The Court of Appeals affirmed. Judgt. order reported at 218 F. 3d 744 (CA5 2000). It stated, however, that the District Court erred by failing first to determine whether Tyler “satisfied AEDPA‘s successive habeas standard.” App. 15. AEDPA requires a district court to dismiss a claim in a second or successive application unless, as relevant here, the applicant “shows” that the “claim relies on a new rule of constitutional law, made retroactive to cases on collateral review by the Supreme Court, that was previously unavail-
The Courts of Appeals are divided on the question whether Cage was “made retroactive to cases on collateral review by the Supreme Court,” as required by
AEDPA greatly restricts the power of federal courts to award relief to state prisoners who file second or successive habeas corpus applications. If the prisoner asserts a claim that he has already presented in a previous federal habeas petition, the claim must be dismissed in all cases.
It is the latter exception that concerns us today. Specifically,
As commonly defined, “made” has several alternative meanings, none of which is entirely free from ambiguity. See, e. g., Webster‘s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary 718-719 (1991) (defining “to make” as “to cause to happen,” “to cause to exist, occur or appear,” “to lay out and construct,” and “to cause to act in a certain way“). Out of context, it may thus be unclear which meaning should apply in
The only way the Supreme Court can, by itself, “lay out and construct” a rule‘s retroactive effect, or “cause” that effect “to exist, occur, or appear,” is through a holding. The Supreme Court does not “ma[k]e” a rule retroactive when it merely establishes principles of retroactivity and leaves the application of those principles to lower courts. In such an event, any legal conclusion that is derived from the principles is developed by the lower court (or perhaps by a combination of courts), not by the Supreme Court.4 We thus conclude that a new rule is not “made retroactive to cases on collateral review” unless the Supreme Court holds it to be retroactive.5
We further note that our interpretation is necessary for the proper implementation of the collateral review structure created by AEDPA. Under the statute, before a state prisoner may file a second or successive habeas application, he “shall move in the appropriate court of appeals for an order authorizing the district court to consider the application.”
Because “made” means “held” for purposes of
Tyler argues, however, that a subsequent case, Sullivan v. Louisiana, 508 U. S. 275 (1993), made the Cage rule retroactive. But Sullivan held only that a Cage error is structural—i. e., it is not amenable to harmless-error analysis and “will always invalidate the conviction.” 508 U. S., at 279. Conceding that the holding in Sullivan does not render Cage retroactive to cases on collateral review, Tyler contends that the reasoning in Sullivan makes clear that retroactive application is warranted by the principles of Teague v. Lane, 489 U. S. 288 (1989). Under Teague, a new rule can be retroactive to cases on collateral review if, and only if, it falls within one of two narrow exceptions to the general rule of nonretroactivity. Id., at 311-313 (plurality opinion). See also O‘Dell v. Netherland, 521 U. S. 151, 156-157 (1997). The exception relevant here is for “watershed rules of criminal procedure implicating the fundamental fairness and accuracy of the criminal proceeding.” Graham v. Collins, 506 U. S. 461, 478 (1993). To fall within this exception, a new rule must meet two requirements: Infringement of the rule must “seriously diminish the likelihood of obtaining an accurate conviction,” and the rule must “‘alter our understanding of the bedrock procedural elements’ essential to the fairness of a proceeding.” Sawyer v. Smith, 497 U. S. 227, 242 (1990) (quoting Teague, supra, at 311 (plurality opinion), in turn quoting Mackey v. United States, 401 U. S. 667, 693 (1971) (Harlan, J., concurring in judgments in part and dissenting in part)).
According to Tyler, the reasoning of Sullivan demonstrates that the Cage rule satisfies both prongs of this Teague exception. First, Tyler notes, Sullivan repeatedly emphasized that a Cage error fundamentally undermines the reliability of a trial‘s outcome. And second, Tyler contends, the central point of Sullivan is that a Cage error deprives a defendant of a bedrock element of procedural fairness: the right to have the jury make the determination of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Tyler‘s arguments fail to persuade, how-
JUSTICE BREYER observes that this Court can make a rule retroactive over the course of two cases. See post, at 672-673 (dissenting opinion). We do not disagree that, with the right combination of holdings, the Court could do this. But even so, the Court has not made Cage retroactive. Multiple cases can render a new rule retroactive only if the holdings in those cases necessarily dictate retroactivity of the new rule. The only holding in Sullivan is that a Cage error is structural error. There is no second case that held that all structural-error rules apply retroactively or that all structural-error rules fit within the second Teague exception. The standard for determining whether an error is structural, see generally Arizona v. Fulminante, 499 U. S. 279 (1991), is not coextensive with the second Teague exception,7 and a
Finally, Tyler suggests that, if Cage has not been made retroactive to cases on collateral review, we should make it retroactive today. We disagree. Because Tyler‘s habeas application was his second, the District Court was required to dismiss it unless Tyler showed that this Court already had made Cage retroactive.
The judgment of the Court of Appeals is affirmed.
It is so ordered.
JUSTICE O‘CONNOR, concurring.
I join the Court‘s opinion and write separately to explain more fully the circumstances in which a new rule is “made retroactive to cases on collateral review by the Supreme Court.”
It is only through the holdings of this Court, as opposed to this Court‘s dicta and as opposed to the decisions of any other court, that a new rule is “made retroactive . . . by the Supreme Court” within the meaning of
The relationship between the conclusion that a new rule is retroactive and the holdings that “ma[k]e” this rule retroactive, however, must be strictly logical—i. e., the holdings must dictate the conclusion and not merely provide principles from which one may conclude that the rule applies retroactively. As the Court observes, “[t]he Supreme Court does not ‘ma[k]e’ a rule retroactive when it merely establishes principles of retroactivity and leaves the application of those principles to lower courts.” Ante, at 663. The Court instead can be said to have “made” a rule retroactive within the meaning of
It is relatively easy to demonstrate the required logical relationship with respect to the first exception articulated in Teague v. Lane, 489 U. S. 288 (1989). Under this exception, “a new rule should be applied retroactively if it places ‘certain kinds of primary, private individual conduct beyond the power of the criminal law-making authority to proscribe.‘” Id., at 307 (plurality opinion) (quoting Mackey v. United States, 401 U. S. 667, 692 (1971) (Harlan, J., concurring in judgments in part and dissenting in part)). When the Court holds as a new rule in a subsequent case that a particular species of primary, private individual conduct is beyond the power of the criminal lawmaking authority to proscribe, it necessarily follows that this Court has “made” that new rule retroactive to cases on collateral review. The Court has done so through its holdings alone, without resort to dicta and without any application of principles by lower courts.
The matter is less straightforward with respect to the second Teague exception, which is reserved for “watershed
JUSTICE BREYER, with whom JUSTICE STEVENS, JUSTICE SOUTER, and JUSTICE GINSBURG join, dissenting.
In Cage v. Louisiana, 498 U. S. 39 (1990) (per curiam), this Court held that a certain jury instruction violated the Constitution because it inaccurately defined “reasonable doubt,” thereby permitting a jury to convict “based on a degree of proof below that required by the Due Process Clause.” Id., at 41. Here we must decide whether this Court has “made” Cage “retroactive to cases on collateral
The Court made Cage retroactive in two cases taken together. Case One is Teague v. Lane, 489 U. S. 288 (1989). That case, as the majority says, held (among other things) that a new rule is applicable retroactively to cases on collateral review if (1) infringement of the new rule will “seriously diminish the likelihood of obtaining an accurate conviction,” id., at 315 (plurality opinion), and (2) the new rule “‘alter[s] our understanding of the bedrock procedural elements that must be found to vitiate the fairness of a particular conviction,‘” id., at 311 (plurality opinion) (quoting Mackey v. United States, 401 U. S. 667, 693 (1971) (Harlan, J., concurring in judgments in part and dissenting in part)) (emphasis deleted).
Case Two is Sullivan v. Louisiana, 508 U. S. 275 (1993). This Court decided Sullivan after several lower courts had held that Cage‘s rule did not fall within the Teague “watershed” exception I have just mentioned. See, e. g., Adams v. Aiken, 965 F. 2d 1306, 1312 (CA4 1992), vacated, 511 U. S. 1001 (1994); Skelton v. Whitley, 950 F. 2d 1037, 1045 (CA5), cert. denied, 506 U. S. 833 (1992). The question in Sullivan was whether a violation of the Cage rule could ever count as harmless error. The Court answered that question in the negative. In so concluding, the Court reasoned that an instruction that violated Cage by misdescribing the concept of reasonable doubt “vitiates all the jury‘s findings,” and deprives a criminal defendant of a “basic protection . . . without which a criminal trial cannot reliably serve its function.” Sullivan, supra, at 281 (emphasis in original; internal quotation marks omitted). It renders the situation as if “there has been no jury verdict within the meaning of the Sixth Amendment.” 508 U. S., at 280.
To reason as the Court reasoned in Sullivan is to hold (in Teague‘s language) (1) that infringement of the Cage rule “seriously diminish[es] the likelihood of obtaining an accurate
Consequently, Sullivan, in holding that a Cage violation can never be harmless because it leaves the defendant with no jury verdict known to the Sixth Amendment, also holds that Cage falls within Teague‘s “watershed” exception. The matter is one of logic. If Case One holds that all men are
The majority says that Sullivan‘s only “holding” is that Cage error is structural, and that this “holding” does not dictate the “watershed” nature of the Cage rule. See ante, at 665-666. But the majority fails to identify a meaningful difference between the definition of a watershed rule under Teague and the standard that we have articulated in the handful of instances in which we have held errors structural, namely, that structural errors deprive a defendant of a “‘basic protectio[n]‘” without which a “‘trial cannot reliably serve its function as a vehicle for determination of guilt or innocence‘” to the point where “‘no criminal punishment may be regarded as fundamentally fair.‘” Arizona v. Fulminante, 499 U. S. 279, 310 (1991) (quoting Rose v. Clark, 478 U. S. 570, 577-578 (1986)); see also Neder v. United States, 527 U. S. 1, 8 (1999) (identifying the six kinds of error, including Cage error, that have been held structural). In principle Teague also adds an element that “structural error” alone need not encompass, namely, the requirement that a violation of the rule must undermine accuracy. But that additional accuracy requirement poses no problem here, for our language in Sullivan could not have made clearer that Cage error seriously undermines the accuracy and reliability of a guilty verdict.
Of course, as the majority points out, identifying an error as structural need not “alter our understanding of th[e] fun-
Insofar as the majority means to suggest that a rule may be sufficiently “new” that it does not apply retroactively but not “new enough” to qualify for the watershed exception, I note only that the cases establishing this exception suggest no such requirement. Rather than focus on the “degree of newness” of a new rule, these decisions emphasize that watershed rules are those that form part of the fundamental requirements of due process. See Teague, 489 U. S., at 311-312 (plurality opinion); Mackey, 401 U. S., at 693-694 (Harlan, J., concurring in judgments in part and dissenting in part); cf. O‘Dell v. Netherland, 521 U. S. 151, 167 (1997) (holding that “narrow right of rebuttal” established by Simmons v. South Carolina, 512 U. S. 154 (1994), “has hardly alter[ed] our understanding of the bedrock procedural elements essential to the fairness of a proceeding” (internal quotation marks omitted; emphasis in original)); Caspari v. Bohlen, 510 U. S. 383, 396 (1994) (holding that application of double jeopardy bar to successive noncapital sentencing would not be unfair and would enhance rather than hinder
Nor does the majority explain why the reasoning that was necessary to our holding in Sullivan (and is therefore binding upon all courts) lacks enough legal force to “make” the Cage rule retroactive. Cf. Seminole Tribe of Fla. v. Florida, 517 U. S. 44, 67 (1996) (“We adhere . . . not to mere obiter dicta, but rather to the well-established rationale upon which the Court based the results of its earlier decisions. When an opinion issues for the Court, it is not only the result but also those portions of the opinion necessary to that result by which we are bound“); Burnham v. Superior Court of Cal., County of Marin, 495 U. S. 604, 613, n. 2 (1990) (plurality opinion) (exclusive basis for judgment is not dicta). In any event, technical issues about what constitutes a “holding” are beside the point. The statutory provision before us does not use the words “holding” or “held.” But cf. ante, at 664 (majority opinion) (stating without explanation that “made” means “held“). It uses the word “made.” It refers to instances in which the Supreme Court has “made” a rule of law “retroactive to cases on collateral review.”
I agree with JUSTICE O‘CONNOR—as does a majority of the Court—when (in describing a different Teague exception) she says that “[w]hen the Court holds as a new rule in a subsequent case that a particular species of primary, private individual conduct is beyond the power of the criminal lawmaking authority to proscribe, it necessarily follows that this Court has ‘made’ that new rule retroactive to cases on collateral review.” Ante, at 669 (concurring opinion). But I do
I would add two further points. First, nothing in the statute‘s purpose favors, let alone requires, the majority‘s conclusion. That purpose, as far as I can surmise, is to bar successive petitions when lower courts, but not the Supreme Court, have held a rule not to be “new” under Teague because dictated by their own precedent, cf. Dyer v. Calderon, 151 F. 3d 970, 993-995 (CA9) (en banc) (O‘Scannlain, J., dissenting) (rejecting proposition that lower court decisions can establish rule for Teague purposes), cert. denied, 525 U. S. 1033 (1998); Clemmons v. Delo, 124 F. 3d 944, 955, n. 11 (CA8 1997) (assuming, without deciding, that only Supreme Court precedent may dictate rule so that it is not new for Teague purposes), cert. denied, 523 U. S. 1088 (1998), or when lower courts have themselves adopted new rules and then determined that the Teague retroactivity factors apply, see Smith v. Groose, 205 F. 3d 1045, 1054 (CA8) (holding that Circuit rule that prosecution‘s use of contradictory theories violates due process would fall within Teague‘s “watershed” exception), cert. denied sub nom. Gammon v. Smith, 531 U. S. 985 (2000); Sanders v. Sullivan, 900 F. 2d 601, 606-607 (CA2 1990) (same, with respect to Circuit rule that prosecution‘s unknowing use of material, perjured testimony violates Constitution). Here, consistent with such a purpose, the Supreme Court has previously spoken.
Even this complex route will remain open only if the relevant statute of limitations is interpreted to permit its 1-year filing period to run from the time that this Court has “made” a new rule retroactive, not from the time it initially recognized that new right. See
I do not understand the basis for the Court‘s approach. I fear its consequences. For these reasons, with respect, I dissent.