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Case 1:20-cr-00330-AJN Document 144 Filed 02/04/21 Page 13 of 25
retroactivity provision. PROTECT Act, S. 151, 108th Cong. (as engrossed in the Senate, Feb.
24. 2003). When the House and Senate conferenced to resolve differences between the bills, the
retroactivity provision was omitted. As Senator Leahy, one of the bill’s original co-sponsors and
a former chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, stated on the Senate floor, the omission was
intentional: “I am pleased that the conference agreed to drop language from the original House-
passed bill that would have extended the limitations period retroactively.” Senator Leahy,
Amber Legislation, Cong. Rec. 149:50, $5147 (2003).
Such a clear expression of congressional intent should end the Landgraf analysis at the
first step. In applying Landgraf, the Supreme Court has made clear that the “expressly
prescribed” analysis is not limited to the text of the statute, but may look to legislative history.
See Martin v. Hadix, 527 U.S. 343, 355-57 (1999) (examining “structure and legislative history”
as part of first Landgraf step); see also Lattab v. Ashcroft, 384 F. 3d 8, 14 (1st Cir. 2004) (‘our
inquiry is not limited to the statutory text but may include an examination of standard ensigns of
statutory construction, such as the statute’s structure and legislative history”). Indeed, Landgraf
itself included a legislative history analysis. 511 U.S. at 264. In Landgraf, however, the Court
concluded that the legislative history at issue did not clearly evidence Congress’ intent regarding
retroactivity. Jd. That is not the case here.
As Judge Katzmann of the Second Circuit has recognized, unambiguous legislative
history should not be disregarded:
When courts construe statutes in ways that respect what legislators consider their
work product, the judiciary not only is more likely to reach the correct result, but
also promotes comity with the first branch of government. It is a bipartisan
institutional perspective within Congress that courts should consider reliable
legislative history and that failing to do so impugns Congress’s workways.
Robert A. Katzmann, Judging Statutes (2014), at 36. Consideration and rejection by Congress of
a legislative proposal is one of the clearest expressions of congressional intent, and courts
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Document Details
| Filename | DOJ-OGR-00002661.jpg |
| File Size | 755.6 KB |
| OCR Confidence | 94.8% |
| Has Readable Text | Yes |
| Text Length | 2,328 characters |
| Indexed | 2026-02-03 16:25:55.957343 |