Cite as: 538 U. S. 63 (2003)
Opinion of the Court
plied our decision in Rummel v. Estelle, 445 U. S. 263 (1980), where we rejected the defendant's claim that a life sentence was " 'grossly disproportionate' to the three felonies that formed the predicate for his sentence." Id., at 265. The California Court of Appeal then examined Andrade's claim in light of the facts in Rummel: "Comparing [Andrade's] crimes and criminal history with that of defendant Rummel, we cannot say the sentence of 50 years to life at issue in this case is disproportionate and constitutes cruel and unusual punishment under the United States Constitution." App. to Pet. for Cert. 76-77.
After the Supreme Court of California denied discretionary review, Andrade filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in Federal District Court. The District Court denied his petition. The Ninth Circuit granted Andrade a certificate of appealability as to his claim that his sentence violated the Eighth Amendment, and subsequently reversed the judgment of the District Court. 270 F. 3d 743 (2001).
The Ninth Circuit first noted that it was reviewing Andrade's petition under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA), 110 Stat. 1214. Applying its own precedent, the Ninth Circuit held that an unreasonable application of clearly established federal law occurs "when our independent review of the legal question 'leaves us with a "firm conviction" that one answer, the one rejected by the [state] court, was correct and the other, the application of the federal law that the [state] court adopted, was erroneous—in other words that clear error occurred.' " 270 F. 3d, at 753 (alteration in original) (quoting Van Tran v. Lindsey, 212 F. 3d 1143, 1153-1154 (CA9 2000)).
The court then reviewed our three most recent major precedents in this area—Rummel v. Estelle, supra, Solem v. Helm, supra, and Harmelin v. Michigan, supra. The Ninth Circuit "follow[ed] the test prescribed by Justice Kennedy in Harmelin," concluding that "both Rummel and Solem remain good law and are instructive in Harmelin's applica-
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