Opinion ID: 2973286
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: G.L.’s 2+2 and Pleading

Text: Requirement Theories In a diametrically different but no less problematic reading, G.L. argues that the text of § 1415(b)(6)(B) supports two interpretations, each of which entitles him to relief. First, he argues that the District Court’s 2+2 approach was correct—that § 1415(b)(6)(B) provides a two-year window before the reasonable discovery date within which he may claim IDEA violations occurred, thus effectively serving as a four-year remedy cap. Second, he argues, along with Amici Appellees,13 that this subsection is merely the description of a established equitable considerations,” despite a plaintiff’s discovery of his or her injury. Id. 13 G.L. focused his argument almost exclusively on the 2+2 rule, candidly explaining at oral argument that, because he only alleged two years of violations, the Court’s adoption of that rule would give him complete relief. He did, however, also support the broader position urged by Amici Appellees, i.e., that properly construed, neither § 1415(f)(3)(C) nor § 1415(b)(6)(B) imposed a cap on remedies. Even if G.L. had not espoused this interpretation of the statute, we are bound, “on the basis of our independent judgment, [to] exercis[e] a plenary review of the purely legal question[] presented” to us by the parties, pursuant to “our duty to 27 prima facie cause of action, with no limit on remedy at all. That is, § 1415(b)(6)(B) requires that a due process complaint allege an injury under the IDEA that occurred within two years of a parent’s reasonable discovery, but imposes no limitation on the remedy if these elements are pleaded and the complaint is timely filed. Both of these interpretations, however, would render the text illogical. For like § 1415(f)(3)(C), § 1415(b)(6)(B) provides in the very same sentence that if a “State has an explicit time limitation for presenting such a complaint,” the complaint shall instead be filed “in such time as the State law allows,” rather than the time described in § 1415(b)(6)(B), and further provides that if the state does enact its own statute of limitations, the federal exceptions still apply to the state’s statute of limitations. 20 U.S.C. § 1415(b)(6)(B). Yet, it would be nonsensical for Congress to specify that a federal statute’s remedy cap or the elements of a prima facie case be replaced by a state’s statute of limitations, and it would be equally illogical to have two bases for equitable tolling—a doctrine used to determine whether a statute of limitations has expired—apply to a provision that is not a statute of limitations in the first place. We decline to interpret the interpret statutory provisions” and accord them the meaning that Congress intended. Vornado, Inc. v. Trs. of the Retail Store Emps.’ Union Local 1262, 829 F.2d 416, 421 (3d Cir. 1987); see also Loretangeli v. Critelli, 853 F.2d 186, 189 n.5 (3d Cir. 1988) (“This court may consider a pure question of law even if not raised below . . . where the issue’s resolution is of public importance.”). 28 statute in this bizarre fashion. See, e.g., Dep’t of Revenue of Or. v. ACF Indus., Inc., 510 U.S. 332, 343 (1994) (rejecting statutory interpretation that would render a statute “illogical” and contrary to congressional intent). In sum, the supposedly straightforward textual arguments of the parties more resemble the twists and bends of a contortion artist, presenting us with the option, on the one hand, of ignoring swaths of the statutory text or, on the other, accepting a reading that is absurd on its face. The parties’ positions are illustrative, however, of the difficulty of applying a plain language reading to this text. We conclude, as we observed in addressing the pre-2004 version of the IDEA, “the language of section 1415(b)(6) is at best ambiguous.” Lawrence Twp. Bd. of Educ. v. New Jersey, 417 F.3d 368, 371 (3d Cir. 2005).14 We therefore must resort to other tools of statutory construction.