Cite as: 512 U. S. 218 (1994)
Stevens, J., dissenting
Cf. Cabell v. Markham, 148 F. 2d 737, 739 (CA2 1945) (Hand, J.). Even if the sole possible meaning of "modify" were to make "minor" changes, ante, at 225,3 further elaboration is needed to show why the detariffing policy should fail. The Commission came to its present policy through a series of rulings that gradually relaxed the filing requirements for nondominant carriers. Whether the current policy should count as a cataclysmic or merely an incremental departure from the § 203(a) baseline depends on whether one focuses on particular carriers' obligations to file (in which case the Commission's policy arguably works a major shift) 4 or on the statutory policies behind the tariff-filing requirement (which remain satisfied because market constraints on nondominant carriers obviate the need for rate filing). When § 203 is viewed as part of a statute whose aim is to constrain monopoly power, the Commission's decision to exempt nondominant carriers is a rational and "measured" adjustment to novel circumstances—one that remains faithful to the core purpose of the tariff-filing section. See Black's Law Dictionary 1198 (3d ed. 1933) (defining "modification" as "A change; an alteration which introduces new elements into the details, or cancels some of them, but leaves the general purpose and effect of the subject-matter intact").
The Court seizes upon a particular sense of the word "modify" at the expense of another, long-established meaning
3 As petitioner MCI points out, the revolutionary consent decree providing for the breakup of the Bell System was, per AT&T's own proposal, entitled "Modification of Final Judgment." See United States v. American Telephone & Telegraph Co., 552 F. Supp. 131 (D. C. 1982), aff'd, 460 U. S. 1001 (1983).
4 Because the statute imposes no limit on the Commission's authority to shorten the interval between filing a tariff and bringing it into effect, and because there is no sign that anyone actually pays attention to tariffs filed by nondominant carriers, the additional step of eliminating the filing requirement is less important than the Court would have it. Even the Court appears to recognize that the Commission could sometimes excuse carriers from filing tariffs. See ante, at 234.
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