484
Blackmun, J., dissenting
enforce the judgment of the Legislature, however much we might question its wisdom or fairness. Often we have urged the Congress to speak with greater clarity, and in this statute it has done so. If the effects of the law are to be alleviated, that is within the province of the Legislature. It is Congress that has the authority to change the statute, not the courts.
For the reasons stated, the judgment of the Court of Appeals is
Affirmed.
Justice Blackmun, with whom Justice Stevens and Justice O'Connor join, dissenting.
For more than 14 years, the Director of the Office of Workers' Compensation Programs interpreted the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act (LHWCA or Act), 44 Stat. 1424, as amended, 33 U. S. C. § 901 et seq., in the very same way that petitioner Floyd Cowart's estate now urges. Indeed, the Director advocated Cowart's position in the Court of Appeals, both before the panel and before that court en banc.
After certiorari was granted, however, and after Cowart's opening brief was filed, the federal respondent informed this Court: "In light of the en banc decision in this case, the Department of Labor reexamined its views on the issue." Brief for Federal Respondent 8, n. 6. The federal respondent now assures us that the interpretation the Director advanced and defended for 14 years is inconsistent with the statute's "plain meaning." The Court today accepts that improbable contention, and in so doing rules that perhaps thousands of employees and their families must be denied death and disability benefits. I cannot agree with the federal respondent's newly discovered interpretation, and still less do I find it to be compelled by the "plain meaning" of the statute. The Court needlessly inflicts additional injury upon these workers and their families. I dissent.
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