Cite as: 511 U. S. 244 (1994)
Opinion of the Court
Co., 209 U. S. 306, 314-315 (1908) (construing statute restricting subcontractors' rights to recover damages from prime contractors as prospective in absence of "clear, strong and imperative" language from Congress favoring retroactivity).37
It will frequently be true, as petitioner and amici forcefully argue here, that retroactive application of a new statute would vindicate its purpose more fully.38 That consider-37 We have sometimes said that new "remedial" statutes, like new "procedural" ones, should presumptively apply to pending cases. See, e. g., Ex parte Collett, 337 U. S., at 71, and n. 38 ("Clearly, § 1404(a) is a remedial provision applicable to pending actions"); Beazell, 269 U. S., at 171 (Ex Post Facto Clause does not limit "legislative control of remedies and modes of procedure which do not affect matters of substance"). While that statement holds true for some kinds of remedies, see supra, at 273- 274 (discussing prospective relief), we have not classified a statute introducing damages liability as the sort of "remedial" change that should presumptively apply in pending cases. "Retroactive modification" of damages remedies may "normally harbo[r] much less potential for mischief than retroactive changes in the principles of liability," Hastings v. Earth Satellite Corp., 628 F. 2d 85, 93 (CADC), cert. denied, 449 U. S. 905 (1980), but that potential is nevertheless still significant.
38 Petitioner argues that our decision in Franklin v. Gwinnett County Public Schools, 503 U. S. 60 (1992), supports application of § 102 to her case. Relying on the principle that "where legal rights have been invaded, and a federal statute provides for a general right to sue for such invasion, federal courts may use any available remedy to make good the wrong,' " id., at 66 (quoting Bell v. Hood, 327 U. S. 678, 684 (1946)), we held in Franklin that the right of action under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 included a claim for damages. Petitioner argues that Franklin supports her position because, if she cannot obtain damages pursuant to § 102, she will be left remediless despite an adjudged violation of her right under Title VII to be free of workplace discrimination. However, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is not a statute to which we would apply the "traditional presumption in favor of all available remedies." 503 U. S., at 72. That statute did not create a "general right to sue" for employment discrimination, but instead specified a set of "circumscribed remedies." See United States v. Burke, 504 U. S. 229, 240 (1992). Until the 1991 amendment, the Title VII scheme did not allow for dam-
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