128
O'Connor, J., dissenting
curring in judgment). But surely that cannot be dispositive. Few decisions are so novel that there is no precedent to which they may be moored. What is determinative is that the decision was "sufficiently debatable" ex ante that, under Chevron Oil, nonretroactivity cannot be precluded. Arizona Governing Committee v. Norris, 463 U. S., at 1109 (O'Connor, J., concurring). That, it seems to me, is the case here.
2
The second Chevron Oil factor is whether denying the rule retroactive application will retard its operation in light of the rule's history, purpose, and effect. 404 U. S., at 107. That factor overwhelmingly favors respondent. The purpose of the intergovernmental immunity doctrine is to protect the rights of the Federal Sovereign against state interference. It does not protect the private rights of individuals:
"[T]he purpose of the immunity was not to confer benefits on the employees by relieving them from contributing their share of the financial support of the other government . . . , but to prevent undue interference with the one government by imposing on it the tax burdens of the other." Graves v. New York ex rel. O'Keefe, 306 U. S. 466, 483-484 (1939) (footnote omitted).
Accord, Davis, supra, at 814 ("[I]ntergovernmental tax immunity is based on the need to protect each sovereign's governmental operations from undue interference by the other"). Affording petitioners retroactive relief in this case would not vindicate the interests of the Federal Government. Instead, it lines the pockets of the Government's former employees. It therefore comes as no surprise that the United States, despite its consistent participation in intergovern-mental immunity cases in the past, has taken no position here. Because retroactive application of the rule in Davis serves petitioners' interests but not the interests intergov-
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