Opinion ID: 795633
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Other retroactivity arguments

Text: 62 Although the vested-rights claim is Southeast's central defense of the judgment below, it also argues that applying the all-or-nothing rule to its request would subject it to new liabilities. See Landgraf, 511 U.S. at 280, 114 S.Ct. 1483 (noting that applying an intervening law may be impermissibly retroactive if it increase[s] a party's liability for past conduct). We are not persuaded. As BellSouth convincingly points out, Southeast is not arguing that application of the all-or-nothing rule itself increases Southeast's liabilities, but that certain actions that Southeast has taken since the PSC's decision could subject Southeast to liability that would not attach if the PSC's decision is upheld. This argument is easily distinguishable from a typical liability case like Landgraf, where the legal change at issue was the imposition of two wholly new forms of liability— compensatory and punitive damages—for past violations of federal civil rights laws. See 511 U.S. at 281-82, 114 S.Ct. 1483. 63 Three other arguments raised in the course of these proceedings—two by the PSC and one by BellSouth—merit brief comment. The first is the policy argument used by the PSC as one justification for refusing to apply the all-or-nothing rule to Southeast's opt-in request. Specifically, the PSC expressed concern that applying the new rule to pending cases would prompt ILECs to delay proceedings when matters are pending in order to benefit from changes in the law. This concern, even if well founded, is more than offset by the adverse policy consequences that follow from such a ruling. If filing an adoption request guaranteed consideration of the CLEC's request under the law in effect at the time of applying, then a CLEC could have assured that the pick-and-choose rule would apply to any request that it was then contemplating simply by filing the request prior to the effective date of the new regulation. As a consequence, the life of the pick-and-choose rule would have been extended well into the future, a result directly contrary to the intentions of the FCC. See Second Report and Order, 19 FCC Rcd. at 13501 ¶ 10. 64 The PSC's other argument is that applying the all-or-nothing rule would have been improper because, [b]ut for BellSouth's objection, Southeast's request would have been approved when the notice was filed. This argument, however, lacks a factual basis. Southeast filed its request on June 8, 2004, and BellSouth did not lodge its objections until June 22, 2004. Yet the request was not processed in the interim, meaning that BellSouth's objection was obviously not a factor in Southeast's request not being approved when the notice was filed. 65 Furthermore, BellSouth's decision to object was not, as the PSC says, extraordinary in the legal sense. Although nothing in the record indicates the frequency with which ILECs objected to opt-in requests under the old rule, availing oneself of an express legal right to interpose an objection is hardly something that courts view as extraordinary. What makes BellSouth's objection different, counsel for the PSC maintained at oral argument, is that it did not fit under any of the grounds for objecting expressly enumerated in the pick-and-choose rule or the FCC's First Report and Order. True enough. But the basis for BellSouth's objection was even more fundamental—that the dispute-resolution provision was not available for adoption under the plain language of the pick-and-choose rule because the provision was not an individual interconnection, network element, or service arrangement. See 47 C.F.R. § 51.809(a) (1997). The PSC recognized that BellSouth's argument was a straightforward textual one when it adjudicated the adoption request in September of 2004. Indeed, although now claiming that BellSouth objected on a ground not permitted by the FCC regulation, the PSC did not dismiss the objection as improper, but instead overruled it on the merits. 66 Finally, the PSC's argument strikes us as overbroad in that it relies on circumstances present virtually any time that the law changes during the course of an adjudicative or decisionmaking process. But for some delay by a party or some ruling by a decisionmaker, the process would have concluded before the law changed. As we noted above, the fact that a party would have fared better under prior law, standing alone, does not mean that subjecting that party to the current law is impermissible. We therefore find the PSC's but for argument unpersuasive. 67 Finally, we turn to BellSouth's alternative argument for reversal. BellSouth argued before the district court and this court that Southeast's opt-in request should have been denied even under the plain language of the pick-and-choose rule. Our conclusion that the PSC erred in not applying the all-or-nothing rule, however, obviates the need to address this alternative argument. Accordingly, we express no opinion on the soundness of the district court's analysis regarding BellSouth's objection to the application of the pick-and-choose rule in the case before us.