Cite as: 520 U. S. 939 (1997)
Opinion of the Court
" '[E]very statute, which takes away or impairs vested rights acquired under existing laws, or creates a new obligation, imposes a new duty, or attaches a new disability, in respect to transactions or considerations already past, must be deemed retrospective.' " 511 U. S., at 269 (quoting Society for Propagation of the Gospel v. Wheeler, 22 F. Cas. 756, 767 (No. 13,156) (CC NH 1814) (Story, J.)).
To the extent respondent contends that only statutes with one of these effects are subject to our presumption against retroactivity, he simply misreads our opinion in Landgraf. The language upon which he relies does not purport to define the outer limit of impermissible retroactivity. Rather, our opinion in Landgraf, like that of Justice Story, merely described that any such effect constituted a sufficient, rather than a necessary, condition for invoking the presumption against retroactivity. Indeed, we recognized that the Court has used various formulations to describe the "functional conceptio[n] of legislative 'retroactivity,' " and made no suggestion that Justice Story's formulation was the exclusive definition of presumptively impermissible retroactive legislation. 511 U. S., at 269.
In any event, even applying Justice Story's formulation, we reject respondent's contention that the 1986 amendment lacks retroactive effect. Respondent first argues that the 1986 amendment does not " 'impose new duties with respect to transactions already completed' " because, since 1863, "the FCA has made it unlawful to knowingly submit a false claim for payment to the United States." Brief for Respondent 15 (quoting Landgraf, supra, at 280). The same argument was made, and rejected, in Landgraf. There, we noted that the provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 authorizing compensatory damages "does not make unlawful conduct that was lawful when it occurred," but we "[n]onetheless" held that "the new compensatory damages provision would operate 'retrospectively' if it were applied to conduct occurring
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