Opinion ID: 797350
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Retroactivity of NGA Section 19(d)

Text: 34 Respondent argues that it cannot be sued under NGA section 19(d) because section 19(d) does not state that it is retroactive, and the CTDEP Denial was issued eighteen months before the statute's enactment. We disagree. 35 In Landgraf v. USI Film Prods., the Supreme Court held that [e]ven absent specific legislative authorization, application of new statutes passed after the events in suit is unquestionably proper in many situations. 511 U.S. 244, 273, 114 S.Ct. 1483, 128 L.Ed.2d 229 (1994). The Court explained that statutes applying new jurisdictional rules are typically retroactive because such statutes regulate the conduct of the courts, not the parties: 36 We have regularly applied intervening statutes conferring or ousting jurisdiction, whether or not jurisdiction lay when the underlying conduct occurred or when the suit was filed.... Application of a new jurisdictional rule usually takes away no substantive right but simply changes the tribunal that is to hear the case. Present law normally governs in such situations because jurisdictional statutes speak to the power of the court rather than to the rights or obligations of the parties.... Because rules of procedure regulate secondary rather than primary conduct, the fact that a new procedural rule was instituted after the conduct giving rise to the suit does not make application of the rule ... retroactive. 37 Id. at 274-75, 114 S.Ct. 1483 (internal citations and quotation marks omitted); accord Hughes Aircraft Co. v. United States, 520 U.S. 939, 951, 117 S.Ct. 1871, 138 L.Ed.2d 135 (1997). 38 Respondent is correct in noting that a presumption against retroactivity applies when new provisions affect contractual or property rights. See Landgraf v. USI Film Prods., 511 U.S. at 270-71, 114 S.Ct. 1483 (The largest category of cases in which we have applied the presumption against statutory retroactivity has involved new provisions affecting contractual or property rights, matters in which predictability and stability are of prime importance.). But as discussed above in the context of Respondent's Tenth Amendment challenge, section 19(b) did not affect any of Connecticut's rights— property, contractual, or otherwise. The CTDEP's ability to issue WQCs was conferred by the federal government, which has exclusive control over navigable waterways. CTDEP therefore lacks independent rights in its WQC determinations. 39 Even if the CTDEP did have property or contract rights under the CWA, section 19(d) would not affect its exercise of those rights. The CTDEP is still entitled to make WQC determinations; those determinations simply are now reviewed in federal court as opposed to state court. Thus, we conclude that section 19(d) applies retroactively, and its provision of exclusive jurisdiction to this court controls this petition. 40