Cite as: 507 U. S. 529 (1993)
Stevens, J., dissenting
was any aspect of our decision in Board of Comm'rs "reaffirmed," ante, at 533, in West Virginia, supra.
In fact, in West Virginia, we rejected the balancing of equities that Board of Comm'rs had suggested might be the only basis for charging a State with prejudgment interest.8 There, the State of West Virginia had refused to reimburse the Federal Government for costs advanced to it under the Disaster Relief Act of 1970. The Court held that "any rule exempting a sovereign from the payment of prejudgment interest not only does not apply of its own force to the State's obligations to the Federal Government, cf. Library of Congress v. Shaw, 478 U. S. 310 (1986), but also does not represent a policy the federal courts are obliged to further." 479 U. S., at 311-312 (footnotes omitted). This was the first statement by this Court suggesting that the States might be generally liable for prejudgment interest on the contractual claims brought by the Federal Government. And, even though we came close to saying in West Virginia that such interest is generally available, we did not go that far. Even in 1987—five years after the Debt Collection Act was passed—it was not clear to us, to Congress, or to the States that the obligation of a State to pay prejudgment interest to the Government would extend to a typical contract claim.
Thus, even though the Court today suggests that its decision is merely an application of Board of Comm'rs and West Virginia, it actually takes a significant and independent step toward equating the Government's right to collect prejudgment interest from the States with the Government's right
8 "The cases teach that interest is not recovered according to a rigid theory of compensation for money withheld, but is given in response to considerations of fairness. It is denied when its exaction would be inequitable. United States v. Sanborn, 135 U. S. 271, 281; Billings v. United States, 232 U. S. 261." Board of Commr's of Jackson County v. United States, 308 U. S. 343, 352 (1939). In 1987 the Court rejected the argument that "whether interest had to be paid depended on a balancing of equities between the parties." West Virginia v. United States, 479 U. S., at 311, n. 3.
543
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