Cite as: 509 U. S. 292 (1993)
Stevens, J., concurring in judgment
U. S. 617 (1990), the case that first drew the distinction between sentence-four and sentence-six remands. To be sure, there is language in Finkelstein that supports the Court's conclusion today that a final judgment must accompany a sentence-four remand order and that such a judgment starts the 30-day clock for filing a fee application under EAJA. But Finkelstein, unlike Hudson, was not a case interpreting EAJA. The question presented was whether the District Court order invalidating Agency regulations as inconsistent with the Social Security Act was a "final decision" within the meaning of 28 U. S. C. § 1291 and thus subject to immediate appeal by the Secretary. In holding that it was, we were careful to note that the issue presented was "appealability," not "the proper time period for filing a petition for attorney's fees under EAJA." 496 U. S., at 628-629, n. 8. More directly, we expressly declined respondent's invitation to import into our analysis of appealability under § 1291 our reasoning and analysis of the EAJA in Hudson. See 496 U. S., at 630.
In Melkonyan, we changed course. The distinction that
we had drawn between the question of appealability under § 1291 and eligibility for fees under EAJA was blurred; in Melkonyan, we imported wholecloth our analysis from Fink-elstein, which, again, concerned § 1291, into our analysis of when the 30-day limitations period for filing an EAJA fee application began to run. It was in that case that we first crafted the rigid distinction between a sentence-four remand and a sentence-six remand for purposes of EAJA, and stated in dicta that the "final judgment in the action" referred to in § 2412(d)(1)(B) of EAJA was the judgment entered concomitantly with a sentence-four remand order.
In my opinion, we should abandon that dicta. While the distinction between a sentence-four and a sentence-six remand may have some force for purposes of appealability, it is a distinction without a difference when viewed, as it should be, "with reference to the purpose of the EAJA and
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