Cite as: 503 U. S. 159 (1992)
Thomas, J., dissenting
and fairly tried in a public tribunal free of prejudice, passion, excitement, and tyrannical power." Id., at 236-237. We have made clear, in particular, that when a state court admits evidence that is "so unduly prejudicial that it renders the trial fundamentally unfair, the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment provides a mechanism for relief." Payne v. Tennessee, 501 U. S., at 825; see Darden v. Wainwright, 477 U. S. 168, 179-183 (1986).
Our decision in Schware v. Board of Bar Examiners of N. M., 353 U. S. 232 (1957), which the Court incorrectly cites, illustrates the point. In Schware, the New Mexico Supreme Court denied an applicant admission to the bar on grounds that he lacked good moral character. Evidence showed that the applicant had belonged to the Communist Party 15 years earlier. The Court erroneously states that Schware held that admitting proof of the applicant's membership in the Communist Party violated the First Amendment. Ante, at 168. Schware, in fact, did not decide that admitting the Communist Party evidence abridged any right of free political association. See 353 U. S., at 243, n. 13. It held, instead, that the state court erred in admitting the Communist Party evidence because it had no relevance to the applicant's moral character after so many years. See id., at 246. Due process, the Court concluded, prohibited the state court to find the applicant morally unfit to practice law without any relevant evidence. See id., at 247.
Applying familiar evidentiary standards in Dawson's case, the trial judge recognized that the "real issue" in admitting the gang membership evidence was whether its "probative value is outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice." App. 52. The Delaware Supreme Court, likewise, examined the record to determine whether the gang membership evidence "improperly appeal[ed] to the juror's passions and prejudices concerning race, religion, or political affiliation." 581 A. 2d 1078, 1103 (1990). The standards employed by these courts went further than the fundamental unfairness
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