Opinion ID: 220999
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Chevron Oil test applies.

Text: The circumstances that justify a deviation from the normal rule of retroactivity have a long jurisprudential history. In the criminal context, the Supreme Court originally held that prospective application was appropriate in some circumstances. Linkletter v. Walker, 381 U.S. 618, 85 S.Ct. 1731, 14 L.Ed.2d 601 (1965). But the Court later overruled Linkletter in favor of a bright-line rule: In criminal cases, any new rule of law must be applied retroactively. Griffith v. Kentucky, 479 U.S. 314, 107 S.Ct. 708, 93 L.Ed.2d 649 (1987). In the civil context, the Supreme Court originally announced a three-factor test of general applicability in Chevron Oil. Under the Chevron Oil test, equitable considerations in some circumstances warrant prospective application of a new rule of law. But the Court has limited, in two relevant ways, the circumstances in which the Chevron Oil test applies. First, a court announcing a new rule of law must decide between pure prospectivity and full retroactivity; what Justice Souter termed selective prospectivity, in which courts weighed the equities on a case-by-case basis, is foreclosed. James B. Beam Distilling Co. v. Georgia, 501 U.S. 529, 537-38, 111 S.Ct. 2439, 115 L.Ed.2d 481 (1991) (Souter, J., plurality op.); see Reynoldsville Casket Co. v. Hyde, 514 U.S. 749, 115 S.Ct. 1745, 131 L.Ed.2d 820 (1995); Harper v. Va. Dep't of Taxation, 509 U.S. 86, 97, 113 S.Ct. 2510, 125 L.Ed.2d 74 (1993) (When[the Supreme] Court applies a rule of federal law to the parties before it, that rule is the controlling interpretation of federal law and must be given full retroactive effect in all cases still open on direct review. . . .); Crowe v. Bolduc, 365 F.3d 86, 93 (1st Cir.2004) (In a civil case, then, a court [announcing a new rule of law] has only two available options: pure prospectivity or full retroactivity.). Second, in cases in which the new rule of law strips the courts of jurisdiction, the courts must apply that new rule of law retroactively. See United States ex rel. Haight v. Catholic Healthcare W., 602 F.3d 949, 953 (9th Cir.) (citing United States ex rel. Eisenstein v. City of New York, ___ U.S. ___, 129 S.Ct. 2230, 173 L.Ed.2d 1255 (2009); Bowles v. Russell, 551 U.S. 205, 127 S.Ct. 2360, 168 L.Ed.2d 96 (2007)), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 131 S.Ct. 366, 178 L.Ed.2d 150 (2010); Felzen v. Andreas, 134 F.3d 873, 877 (7th Cir. 1998) (citing Christianson v. Colt Indus. Operating Corp., 486 U.S. 800, 818, 108 S.Ct. 2166, 100 L.Ed.2d 811 (1988)). Equitable considerations are altogether irrelevant when a court lacks adjudicatory power. Felzen, 134 F.3d at 877. We glean from this jurisprudential history the following rule of law: We apply the three-pronged test outlined in Chevron Oil (1) in a civil case; (2) when we announce a new rule of law, as distinct from applying a new rule that we or the Supreme Court previously announced; (3) and when the new rule does not concern our jurisdiction. See, e.g., George v. Camacho, 119 F.3d 1393, 1399 n. 9 (9th Cir. 1997) (en banc). [4] Like some of our sister circuits, we acknowledge that the Supreme Court's reasoning in cases such as Harper could support a conclusion that the Chevron Oil test no longer applies in any circumstances: all new rules of law must be applied retroactively. See, e.g., Kolkevich v. Att'y Gen. of U.S., 501 F.3d 323, 337 n. 9 (3d Cir.2007) (observing that, as some commentators have noted, it is unclear whether we have the power to apply a new rule of law prospectively in light of Harper, but not reaching the issue); Fairfax Covenant Church v. Fairfax Cnty. Sch. Bd., 17 F.3d 703, 710 (4th Cir.1994) (noting that, in Harper, the Supreme Court cast serious doubt upon the continuing vitality of the Chevron Oil test). But the Supreme Court has not overruled the Chevron Oil test in the circumstances described above. See Glazner v. Glazner, 347 F.3d 1212, 1216-17 (11th Cir.2003) (en banc) (Although prospectivity appears to have fallen into disfavor with the Supreme Court [citing Harper, James B. Beam, and Griffith ], the Court has clearly retained the possibility of pure prospectivity and, we believe, has also retained the Chevron Oil test, albeit in a modified form, as the governing analysis for such determinations in civil cases.); Fairfax Covenant Church, 17 F.3d at 710 (We are struck, however, by the notable absence in Harper of any statement that Chevron [Oil] is overruled. . . .); but see Hulin v. Fibreboard Corp., 178 F.3d 316, 333 (5th Cir.1999) (concluding, in dictum, that [t]he Court's most recent decisions . . . leav[e] only an indistinct possibility of the application of pure prospectivity in an extremely unusual and unforeseeable case). As a circuit court, even if recent Supreme Court jurisprudence has perhaps called into question the continuing viability of [its precedent], we are bound to follow a controlling Supreme Court precedent until it is explicitly overruled by that Court. United States v. Weiland, 420 F.3d 1062, 1079 n. 16 (9th Cir.2005) (citation omitted); see Rodriguez de Quijas v. Shearson/Am. Express, Inc., 490 U.S. 477, 484, 109 S.Ct. 1917, 104 L.Ed.2d 526 (1989) (If a precedent of this Court has direct application in a case, yet appears to rest on reasons rejected in some other line of decisions, the Court of Appeals should follow the case which directly controls, leaving to this Court the prerogative of overruling its own decisions.). We therefore remain bound by Chevron Oil. For that same reason, every court to have decided the issue has concluded that Chevron Oil continues to apply. See Crowe, 365 F.3d at 94 (applying the Chevron Oil test); Glazner, 347 F.3d at 1219 (same); see also Shah v. Pan Am. World Servs., Inc., 148 F.3d 84, 91 (2d Cir.1998) (same). Following our sister circuits and our previous holdings, we too will apply the Chevron Oil test when all three of the requirements described above are met. In this civil case, we announce a new rule of law that does not concern our jurisdiction. The Chevron Oil test applies.