Cite as: 538 U. S. 63 (2003)
Souter, J., dissenting
disproportionality issue on direct review because of the "potential for disagreement over application of" AEDPA).2
The gross disproportionality principle reserves a constitutional violation for only the extraordinary case. In applying this principle for § 2254(d)(1) purposes, it was not an unreasonable application of our clearly established law for the California Court of Appeal to affirm Andrade's sentence of two consecutive terms of 25 years to life in prison.
V
The judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, accordingly, is reversed.
It is so ordered.
Justice Souter, with whom Justice Stevens, Justice Ginsburg, and Justice Breyer join, dissenting.
The application of the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment to terms of years is articulated in the "clearly established" principle acknowledged by the Court: a sentence grossly disproportionate to the offense for which it is imposed is unconstitutional. See ante, at 72-73; Harmelin v. Michigan, 501 U. S. 957 (1991); Solem v. Helm, 463 U. S. 277 (1983); Rummel v. Estelle, 445 U. S. 263 (1980). For the reasons set forth in Justice Breyer's dissent in Ewing v. California, ante, at 35, which I joined, Andrade's sentence cannot survive Eighth Amendment review. His criminal history is less grave than Ewing's, and yet he received a prison term twice as long for a less serious triggering offense. To be sure, this is a habeas case and a prohibition couched in terms as general as gross
2 Justice Souter would hold that Andrade's sentence also violates the unreasonable application prong of § 2254(d)(1). Post, at 79-82. His reasons, however, do not change the "uncertainty" of the scope of the proportionality principle. We cannot say that the state court decision was an unreasonable application of this principle.
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