SOUTER, J., concurring in judgment was likely compromised in a serious way. If, in a given case, intimidation of this nature was brought about by the wearing of buttons, relief under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA) would likely be available even in the absence of a Supreme Court case addressing the wearing of buttons. While general rules tend to accord courts "more leeway... in reaching outcomes in case-by-case determinations," Yarborough v. Alvarado, 541 U. S. 652, 664 (2004), AEDPA does not require state and federal courts to wait for some nearly identical factual pattern before a legal rule must be applied, cf. Wright v. West, 505 U. S. 277, 308309 (1992) (KENNEDY, J., concurring in judgment). In the case before us there is no indication the atmosphere at respondent's trial was one of coercion or intimidation to the severe extent demonstrated in the cases just discussed. The instant case does present the issue whether as a preventative measure, or as a general rule to preserve the calm and dignity of a court, buttons proclaiming a message relevant to the case ought to be prohibited as a matter of course. That rule has not been clearly established by our cases to date. It may be that trial judges as a general practice already take careful measures to preserve the decorum of courtrooms, thereby accounting for the lack of guiding precedents on this subject. In all events, it seems to me the case as presented to us here does call for a new rule, perhaps justified as much as a preventative measure as by the urgent needs of the situation. That rule should be explored in the court system, and then established in this Court before it can be grounds for relief in the procedural posture of this case. For these reasons, I concur in the judgment of the Court. JUSTICE SOUTER, concurring in the judgment. In this habeas proceeding, a federal court may not set aside the state judgment sustaining Musladin's conviction without finding it contrary to, or an unreasonable application SOUTER, J., concurring in judgment of, clearly established federal law. 28 U. S. C. § 2254(d)(1). While the ground between criteria entailed by "clearly established" and "unreasonable application" may be murky, it makes sense to regard the standard governing this case as clearly established by this Court. We have a number of decisions dealing with threats to the fundamental fairness of a criminal trial posed by conditions in (or originating in) the courtroom, see, e. g., Holbrook v. Flynn, 475 U. S. 560 (1986); Estelle v. Williams, 425 U. S. 501 (1976); Sheppard v. Maxwell, 384 U. S. 333 (1966); Estes v. Texas, 381 U. S. 532 (1965), and the two most recent ones agree on a general formulation harking back to Estes, id., at 542-546: the question is whether the practice or condition presents "an unacceptable risk . . . of impermissible factors coming into play'" in the jury's consideration of the case. Flynn, supra, at 570 (quoting Williams, supra, at 505). The Court's intent to adopt a standard at this general and comprehensive level could not be much clearer. As for the applicability of this standard, there is no serious question that it reaches the behavior of spectators. The focus of the later cases is on appearances within the courtroom open to the jurors' observation. There is no suggestion in the opinions, and no reason to think now, that it should matter whether the State or an individual may be to blame for some objectionable sight; either way, the trial judge has an affirmative obligation to control the courtroom and keep it free of improper influence. Sheppard, supra, at 363. And since the Williams-Flynn standard is a guide for trial judges, not for laypersons without schooling in threats to the fairness of trials, its general formulation is enough to tell trial judges that it applies to the behavior of courtroom visitors. Nor is there any reasonable doubt about the pertinence of the standard to the practice in question; one could not seriously deny that allowing spectators at a criminal trial to wear visible buttons with the victim's photo can raise a risk of improper considerations. The display is no part of the SOUTER, J., concurring in judgment evidence going to guilt or innocence, and the buttons are at once an appeal for sympathy for the victim (and perhaps for those who wear the buttons) and a call for some response from those who see them. On the jurors' part, that expected response could well seem to be a verdict of guilty, and a sympathetic urge to assuage the grief or rage of survivors with a conviction would be the paradigm of improper consideration. The only debatable question is whether the risk in a given case reaches the "unacceptable" level. While there is a fair argument that any level of risk from wearing buttons in a courtroom is unacceptable, two considerations keep me from concluding that the state court acted unreasonably in failing to see the issue this way and reverse the conviction. First, of the several courts that have considered the influence of spectators' buttons, the majority have left convictions standing. See, e. g., State v. Speed, 265 Kan. 26, 47-48, 961 P. 2d 13, 29-30 (1998); State v. Braxton, 344 N. C. 702, 709-710, 477 S. E. 2d 172, 176-177 (1996); State v. Lord, 128 Wash. App. 216, 219-223, 114 P. 3d 1241, 1243–1245 (2005); Nguyen v. State, 977 S. W. 2d 450, 457 (Tex. App. 1998). I am wary of assuming that every trial and reviewing judge in those cases was unreasonable as well as mistaken in failing to embrace a no-risk standard, and so I would find it hard to say the state judges were unreasonable in this case, given the lack of detail about the buttons' display. Second, an interest in protected expression on the part of the spectators wearing mourners' buttons has been raised, but not given focus or careful attention in this or any other case that has come to our notice. Although I do not find such a First Amendment interest intuitively strong here, in the absence of developed argument it would be preferable not to decide whether protection of speech could require acceptance of some risk raised by spectators' buttons. For these reasons, I think Musladin has not shown the state judge's application of our law to be unreasonable, and on that ground concur in the Court's judgment. Syllabus BP AMERICA PRODUCTION CO., SUCCESSOR IN INTER- CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT No. 05-669. Argued October 4, 2006-Decided December 11, 2006 After the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service (MMS) issued administrative orders assessing petitioners for royalty underpayments on gas leases they held on Government lands, petitioners filed an administrative appeal, contending, inter alia, that the proceedings were barred by 28 U. S. C. § 2415(a), which provides in relevant part: "[E]very action for money damages brought by the United States or an . . agency thereof which is founded upon any contract . . . shall be barred unless the complaint is filed within six years after the right of action accrues or within one year after final decisions have been rendered in applicable administrative proceedings." (Emphasis added.) The Assistant Secretary of the Interior denied the appeals, ruling that § 2415(a) did not govern the administrative order. The District Court agreed, and the Court of Appeals affirmed. Held: Section 2415(a)'s 6-year statute of limitations applies only to court actions, not to the administrative payment orders involved in this case. Pp. 91-101. (a) Unless otherwise defined, statutory terms are generally interpreted in accordance with their ordinary meaning. Read in this way, § 2415(a)'s text is quite clear: Its key terms-"action" and "complaint"— are ordinarily used in connection with judicial, not administrative, proceedings. See, e. g., Unexcelled Chemical Corp. v. United States, 345 U.S. 59, 66. The phrase "action for money damages" reinforces this reading because the term "damages" is generally used to mean pecuniary compensation or indemnity recovered in court. Moreover, the fact that § 2415(a) distinguishes between judicial and administrative proceedings by providing that an "action" must commence "within one year after final decisions have been rendered in applicable administrative proceedings" shows that Congress knew how to identify administrative proceedings and manifestly had two separate concepts in mind when it enacted §2415(a). Pp. 91-92. Syllabus (b) Petitioners' assertion that §2415(a)'s term "action" is commonly used to refer to administrative, as well as judicial, proceedings, is not persuasive. The numerous statutes and regulations cited to document this supposed usage actually undermine petitioners' argument, since none of them uses the term "action" standing alone to refer to administrative proceedings. Rather, each includes a modifier, referring to an "administrative action," a "civil or administrative action," or "administrative enforcement actions." Section 2415(a)'s references to "every action for money damages" founded upon "any contract" (emphasis added) do not assist petitioners, as they do not broaden the ordinary meaning of the key term "action." Pennsylvania v. Delaware Valley Citizens' Council for Clean Air, 478 U. S. 546, and West v. Gibson, 527 U. S. 212, distinguished. Pp. 92-94. (c) Petitioners' suggestion that an MMS payment order constitutes a "complaint" under § 2415(a) is also rejected. Their examples of statutes and regulations employing the term "complaint" in the administrative context are unavailing, since such occasional usage of the term does not alter its primary meaning, which concerns the initiation of a civil action. Moreover, an MMS payment order lacks the essential attributes of a complaint, which is a filing that commences a proceeding that may result in a legally binding order providing relief. In contrast, an MMS order in and of itself imposes a legal obligation on the party to which it is issued. Given that the failure to comply with such an order can result in fines of up to $10,000 a day, see 30 U. S. C. § 1719(c), the order plays an entirely different role from that of a "complaint." P. 95. (d) Any remaining doubts are erased by the canon that statutes of limitations are construed narrowly against the government. This canon is rooted in the traditional rule that time does not run against the King. A corollary of this rule is that a sovereign that elects to subject itself to a statute of limitations is given the benefit of the doubt if the statute's scope is ambiguous. Bowers v. New York & Albany Lighterage Co., 273 U. S. 346, distinguished. Pp. 95-96. (e) The Court disagrees with petitioners' argument that interpreting § 2415(a) as applying only to judicial actions renders § 2415(i)—which specifies that "[t]he provisions of this section shall not prevent the United States... from collecting any claim... by means of administrative offset"-superfluous in contravention of the canon against reading a statute in a way that makes part of it redundant. Under the Court's interpretation, § 2415(i) is not mere surplusage, but clarifies that administrative offsets are not covered by §2415(a) even if they are viewed as an adjunct of a court action. To accept petitioners' argument, on the other hand, the Court would have to hold either that § 2415(a) applied to administrative actions when it was enacted in 1966 or that it was |