Cite as: 510 U. S. 355 (1994)
Opinion of the Court
the portion remanding for reallocation of CFR costs between the Airlines and general aviation. The Airport's failure to file a cross-petition on the CFR issue—the issue on which it was a judgment loser—thus leads us to resist the plea to declare the AHTA claim unfit for District Court adjudication.8
The question whether a federal statute creates a claim for relief is not jurisdictional. See Air Courier Conference v. Postal Workers, 498 U. S. 517, 523, n. 3 (1991); Burks v. Lasker, 441 U. S. 471, 476, n. 5 (1979); Mt. Healthy City Bd. of Ed. v. Doyle, 429 U. S. 274, 278-279 (1977); Bell v. Hood, 327 U. S. 678, 682 (1946). Accordingly, we shall assume, solely for purposes of this case, that the alleged AHTA private right of action exists.
B
The AHTA prohibits States and their subdivisions from levying a "fee" or "other charge" "directly or indirectly" on "persons traveling in air commerce or on the carriage of persons traveling in air commerce." 49 U. S. C. § 1513(a). Landing fees, terminal charges, and other airport user fees of the sort here challenged fit § 1513(a)'s description. As we confirmed in an opinion invalidating a state tax on airlines' gross receipts, § 1513(a)'s compass is not limited to direct "head" taxes. Aloha Airlines, 464 U. S., at 12-13.
But § 1513(a) does not stand alone. That subsection's prohibition is immediately modified by § 1513(b)'s permission. See Wardair Canada Inc. v. Florida Dept. of Revenue, 477
8 Berkemer v. McCarty, 468 U. S. 420, 435, n. 23 (1984), is not to the contrary. There the Court of Appeals had reversed the respondent's criminal conviction, holding postarrest incriminating statements inadmissible under Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U. S. 436 (1966). Because he prevailed in the Court of Appeals, obtaining a judgment entirely in his favor, respondent could not have filed a cross-petition. Accordingly, his contention that certain prearrest statements (whose admissibility the Court of Appeals had left ambiguous) were inadmissible was a permissible argument in defense of the judgment below.
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