Cite as: 533 U. S. 656 (2001)
Breyer, J., dissenting
review." 28 U. S. C. § 2244(b)(2)(A) (1994 ed., Supp. V). I believe that it has.
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 "water-shed" 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
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