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EASTERN ENTERPRISES v. APFEL

Opinion of O(cid:146)Connor, J.

the character of the governmental action.”
Connolly, supra, at 224–225.

Ibid.; see also

B

Our analysis in this case is informed by previous decisions
considering the constitutionality of somewhat similar legisla-
tive schemes.
In Usery v. Turner Elkhorn Mining Co., 428
U. S. 1 (1976), we had occasion to review provisions of the
Black Lung Beneﬁts Act of 1972, 30 U. S. C. § 901 et seq.,
which required coal operators to compensate certain miners
and their survivors for death or disability due to black lung
disease caused by employment in coal mines. Coal opera-
tors challenged the provisions of the Act relating to miners
who were no longer employed in the industry, arguing that
those provisions violated substantive due process by im-
posing “an unexpected liability for past, completed acts
that were legally proper and, at least in part, unknown to be
dangerous at the time.”

428 U. S., at 15.

.

In rejecting the operators’ challenge, we explained that
“legislative Acts adjusting the burdens and beneﬁts of eco-
nomic life come to the Court with a presumption of con-
stitutionality, and .
. the burden is on one complaining
of a due process violation to establish that the legislature
Ibid. We
has acted in an arbitrary and irrational way.”
observed that stricter limits may apply to Congress’ author-
ity when legislation operates in a retroactive manner, id., at
16–17, but concluded that the assignment of liability for black
lung beneﬁts was “justiﬁed as a rational measure to spread
the costs of the employees’ disabilities to those who have
proﬁted from the fruits of their labor,” id., at 18.

Several years later, we confronted a due process chal-
lenge to the Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act
of 1980 (MPPAA), 94 Stat. 1208. See Pension Beneﬁt Guar-
anty Corporation v. R. A. Gray & Co., 467 U. S. 717 (1984).
The MPPAA was enacted to supplement ERISA, 29 U. S. C.
§ 1001 et seq., which established the Pension Beneﬁt Guar-