Opinion ID: 2211907
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the absence of meaningful constitutional limitations on retroactive civil legislation

Text: Regarding the current state of the law, Professor Eule neatly sums up the sad state of affairs as follows: Efforts to locate limits on retroactivity in the due process clauses of the fifth and fourteenth amendments, although once viewed as promising, seem to have fallen on hard times. The resurrection of the contract clause has not been paralleled under the due process provisions. The occasional noises emanating from the Court, designed to remind us that the route is not foreclosed, have a hollow ring to them. In Usery v Turner Elkhorn Mining Co [428 US 1; 96 S Ct 2882; 49 L Ed 2d 752 (1976)], for example, Justice Marshall, writing for the Court, concluded his recitation of the minimal scrutiny appropriate in reviewing economic legislation under the due process clause with the statement: It does not follow, however, that what Congress can legislate prospectively it can legislate retrospectively. In the context of the entire opinion, which nevertheless upheld the retrospective application of federal mine health legislation, this language cannot be fairly read as proposing or applying a more stringent level of scrutiny for retroactive legislation. Minimal scrutiny is still very much the order of the day. Only the focus is adjusted slightly. Hence it is not the legislative selection of the means but its decision to apply the means retrospectively that must bear a rational relationship to whatever legitimate ends the Court conjures up. The slim possibility that a successful attack could ever be launched, given the size of this judicially constructed target, is rendered implausible by the strong presumption of constitutionality that economic and remedial social enactments are afforded, even when retroactive. In the determination of whether retrospective economic legislation violates due process, the burden of proving irrationality thus rests squarely on the party asserting the violation. There's not much for a legislator to worry about here. [ Id., p 429. Citations omitted.]
In my opinion, Turner Elkhorn and Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp v R A Gray & Co, 467 US 717; 104 S Ct 2709; 81 L Ed 2d 601 (1984), make clear that the legislation here under attack need only survive minimal, rational-basis scrutiny. [1] In addition, there are numerous cases from the federal courts of appeals supporting the majority's result. See, e.g., Wiggins v Comm'r of Internal Revenue, 904 F2d 311 (CA 5, 1990) (upholding the retroactive application to tax year 1983 of 1984 federal tax legislation, despite the appellant's reliance on the prior law); Canisius College v United States, 799 F2d 18 (CA 2, 1986), cert den 481 US 1014 (1987), Temple Univ v United States, 769 F2d 126 (CA 3, 1985), cert den 476 US 1182 (1986), and New England Baptist Hosp v United States, 807 F2d 280 (CA 1, 1986) (upholding, against a due process challenge, a retroactivity period of approximately four years); Long Island Oil Products Co, Inc v Local 553 Pension Fund, 775 F2d 24 (CA 2, 1985) (upholding a statute which reached back five years to undo a previously authorized six-month period of retroactivity); United States v Northeastern Pharmaceutical & Chemical Co, Inc, 810 F2d 726 (CA 8, 1986), cert den 484 US 848 (1987), United States v Monsanto Co, 858 F2d 160 (CA 4, 1988), cert den 490 US 1106 (1989), and O'Neil v Picillo, 883 F2d 176 (CA 1, 1989), cert den 493 US ___ (1990) (upholding retroactive application of a federal environmental statute creating liability for past, improper disposal of hazardous waste); Counsel v Dow, 849 F2d 731 (CA 2, 1988), cert den 488 US 955 (1988) (upholding legislation retroactively authorizing attorney fees); and cases upholding the constitutionality of the Portal-to-Portal Act of 1947, 29 USC 251 et seq., including Battaglia v General Motors Corp, 169 F2d 254 (CA 2, 1948), cert den 335 US 887 (1948), and Seese v Bethlehem Steel Co, 168 F2d 58 (CA 4, 1948) (upholding extensive retroactive nullification of a Supreme Court decision interpreting the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, 29 USC 201 et seq. ).