Cite as: 533 U. S. 656 (2001)
Opinion of the Court
holding that a particular error is structural does not logically dictate the conclusion that the second Teague exception has been met.
III
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. § 2244(b)(4) ("A district court shall dismiss any claim presented in a second or successive application that the court of appeals has authorized to be filed unless the applicant shows that the claim satisfies the requirements of this section"); § 2244(b)(2)(A) ("A claim presented in a second or successive habeas corpus application under section 2254 that was not presented in a prior application shall be dismissed unless . . . the applicant shows that
the "fundamental requirements of due process," see post, at 674 (dissenting opinion)) alter such understanding. See, e. g., Sawyer, supra, at 244 (holding that the rule in Caldwell v. Mississippi, 472 U. S. 320 (1985), did not fit within the second Teague exception even though it "added to an existing guarantee of due process protection against fundamental unfairness"); O'Dell v. Netherland, 521 U. S. 151, 167 (1997) (holding that the rule in Simmons v. South Carolina, 512 U. S. 154 (1994), which has been described as serving "one of the hallmarks of due process," id., at 175 (O'Connor, J., concurring in judgment), did not fit within the second Teague exception). On the contrary, the second Teague exception is reserved only for truly "watershed" rules. See O'Dell, supra, at 167; see also Caspari v. Bohlen, 510 U. S. 383, 396 (1994) (describing such rules as "groundbreaking"); Graham v. Collins, 506 U. S. 461, 478 (1993) (explaining that the exception is limited to "a small core of rules," which not only seriously enhance accuracy but also "requir[e] 'observance of those procedures that . . . are implicit in the concept of ordered liberty' ") (quoting Teague, supra, at 311 (internal quotation marks omitted)); Saffle v. Parks, 494 U. S. 484, 495 (1990) (focusing on "primacy and centrality" of the rule). As we have recognized, it is unlikely that any of these water-shed rules "ha[s] yet to emerge." Sawyer, supra, at 243 (quoting Teague, supra, at 313 (plurality opinion)); see also Graham, supra, at 478.
667
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