366
Opinion of the Court
U. S. 1, 15-16 (1986) (Burger, C. J., concurring in part and concurring in judgment) (§ 1513(b)'s saving clause was enacted in response to the States' concern that § 1513(a)'s "sweeping provision would prohibit even unobjectionable taxes such as landing fees . . ."). Sections 1513(a) and (b) together instruct that airport user fees are permissible only if, and to the extent that, they fall within § 1513(b)'s saving clause, which removes from § 1513(a)'s ban "reasonable rental charges, landing fees, and other service charges from aircraft operators for the use of airport facilities." 9
While § 1513(b) allows only "reasonable rental charges, landing fees, and other service charges," the AHTA does not set standards for assessing reasonableness. Courts, we recognize, are scarcely equipped to oversee, without the initial superintendence of a regulatory agency, rate structures and practices. See Colorado Interstate Gas Co. v. FPC, 324 U. S. 581, 589 (1945) ("Rate-making is essentially a legislative function."); cf. Far East Conference v. United States, 342 U. S. 570, 574 (1952) ("in cases raising issues of fact not within the conventional experience of judges or cases requiring the exercise of administrative discretion, agencies created by Congress for regulating the subject matter should not be passed over").10 The Secretary of Transportation is
9 The Airport's argument, accepted by the dissent, that user fees are entirely outside the scope of the AHTA because they are not "head" taxes, advances an untenable reading of the statute. We note, in this regard, § 1513(b)'s recognition, in its first clause, of "taxes other than those enumerated in subsection (a) of this section, including property taxes, net income taxes, franchise taxes, and sales or use taxes on the sale of goods or services" (emphasis added). Unlike the property and income taxes listed in the first clause of § 1513(b), the airport user fees listed in § 1513(b)'s second clause are not described as taxes "other than those enumerated in subsection (a)." The statute, in sum, is hardly ambiguous on this matter: User fees are covered by § 1513(a), but may be saved by § 1513(b).
10 The reasonableness of the Airport's rates might have been referred, prior to any court's consideration, to the Department of Transportation under the primary jurisdiction doctrine. That doctrine is "specifically ap-
Page: Index Previous 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007