Cite as: 538 U. S. 835 (2003)
Rehnquist, C. J., dissenting
us to answer. Fiore v. White, 531 U. S. 225, 226 (2001) (per curiam).
In the present case, the Court concedes that the Florida Supreme Court acknowledged our opinion in Fiore. The Florida Supreme Court concluded that its decision in L. B. v. State, 700 So. 2d 370 (1997) (per curiam), decided after petitioner's conviction became final, marked a change in Florida law. 833 So. 2d 739, 744, n. 12 (2002).1 The state court therefore considered whether the change should be applied retroactively, and concluded that it should not be.
The Court recognizes, as it must, that the Florida Supreme Court concluded that L. B. was a change in the law from the time of petitioner's conviction. Ante, at 841 ("It is true that the Florida Supreme Court held . . . [that] the L. B. decision was a change in the law"). Yet the Court criticizes the Florida Supreme Court for thinking that conclusion "sufficient to dispose of the Fiore question." Ibid. The Court acknowledges that "[o]rdinarily, the Florida Supreme Court's holding that L. B. constitutes a change in—rather than a clarification of—the law would be sufficient to dispose of the Fiore question," but then holds that, because the Florida Supreme Court "characterized L. B. as part of the 'century-long evolutionary process,' " Fiore requires that court to answer an additional question: whether petitioner's knife fit within the " 'common pocketknife' " exception at the time of his conviction. Ante, at 841.
Fiore requires no such thing. Fiore asked whether a change had occurred and, upon finding that none had, ended the inquiry. The Court here goes much further. It acknowledges that L. B. neither clarified the law that was in existence at the time of petitioner's conviction nor changed the law with retroactive effect. Yet it nonetheless insists
1 Petitioner presents strong arguments in favor of his view that the bright-line rule set out in L. B. existed as a matter of Florida law at the time of his conviction. Pet. for Cert. 6. But the Florida Supreme Court concluded otherwise, and we may not revisit that question.
843
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