Security Services, Inc. v. Kmart Corp., 511 U.S. 431, 17 (1994)

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Cite as: 511 U. S. 431 (1994)

Thomas, J., dissenting

closely tied to that mandate." Id., at 365, 367 (internal quotation marks omitted). To ascertain whether the void-fornonparticipation rule is within the Commission's power, we should ask the same questions.

The Court dispenses with the inquiry outlined in American Trucking, however, in the belief that the decision applies only to cases involving "retroactiv[e]" action by the Commission. Ante, at 440. It is true that in American Trucking, the Commission's rejection remedy operated retroactively by voiding the tariff ab initio. Thus, unlike the Commission's action in this case, the remedy affected the charges for transportation completed before the rejection took place. The Court, however, misapprehends the scope of our holding. Far from establishing a special test for retroactive Commission actions, American Trucking merely applied established principles delimiting the Commission's implied or adjunct powers. Although the retroactive effect of the proposed remedy was relevant to our assessment of the Commission's authority, it did not alter our method of analyzing the statutory challenge to the Commission's power.

Indeed, the decisions upon which we relied in American Trucking make clear that the methodology we pursued in that case is not limited to situations involving retroactive agency action. See American Trucking, supra, at 365-366 (discussing Trans Alaska Pipeline Rate Cases, 436 U. S. 631 (1978), and United States v. Chesapeake & Ohio R. Co., 426 U. S. 500 (1976)). Those cases involved "the Commission's efforts to place reasonable conditions on the acceptance of proposed tariffs" as an alternative to suspension of the tariffs pending investigation. 467 U. S., at 365. In Chesapeake & Ohio, the Court considered whether conditions imposed on immediate acceptance of a tariff, although not expressly authorized by the Act, were impliedly authorized because they were "directly related to" the Commission's specific statutory mandate to review, and to suspend if neces-

447

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