Alito, J., dissenting
consider Madison’s claims pertaining to dementia–Madison cannot point to any portion of the state court order that says this–it is that the trial court correctly noted that Madison failed to prove that any dementia interfered with Madison’s ability to have a rational understanding of his execution, including the reasons therefor”); id., at 27 (“The Supreme Court has not held that a petitioner can show incompetence without demonstrating a mental illness or that dementia and memory loss definitively preclude rational understanding”); id., at 29 (“To the extent the state court followed the lead of the Supreme Court, this Court, and the ABA and required Madison to show that a mental illness prevented him from having a rational understanding of his punishment, doing so was not an unreasonable application of clearly established federal law”).
It is true that the State’s brief, in addressing the standard for granting federal habeas relief under 28 U. S. C. §2254(d), stated that this Court “ha[d] never held that dementia or memory loss is sufficient to show a lack of rational understanding,” Brief for Appellee 29, but that was because a claim under §2254(d) must be based on a clearly established Supreme Court holding. See Recording of Oral Arg. in No. 16–12279 (CA11, June 23, 2016), at 32:37–33:30 (State rejecting a suggestion that Panetti holds “if you don’t remember committing the crime at all, and it is clear based on the medical testimony that you don’t remember committing this crime, then you don’t have a rational understanding of the factual basis for the imposition of the death penalty”: “First of all, under AEDPA deference, I think that that is not the holding of Panetti…. I think under AEDPA deference, it’s pretty clear that the holding of Panetti is very narrow…. I would say the holding in Panetti is that documented mental illness that results in a delusion has to be considered when talking about rational understanding”); id., at 36:00–36:30 (“I think the Supreme Court has never held that not remembering something is equivalent to not having a rational understanding. I think that is just undeniably true. And if AEDPA deference applies, then I don’t think the state court could have been unreasonable in rejecting the view that memory is required”). The State did not argue either that dementia cannot satisfy Ford and Panetti or that the state court based its decision on that ground. On the contrary, Alabama wrote that “even if the trial court had determined that dementia and severe memory loss–or even total amnesia–are insufficient to meet the rational understanding test, that finding would not contradict clearly established federal law.” Brief for Appellee 29; see also id., at 30 (“Even assuming the state court held, as a matter of law, that amnesia is not sufficient to show a lack of rational understanding, that determination was not unreasonable in light of clearly
