Cite as: 514 U. S. 211 (1995)
Stevens, J., dissenting
ceived notice of their entry,13 as well as provisions for motions to reopen based on newly discovered evidence,14 further demonstrate the widespread acceptance of remedial statutes that allow courts to set aside final judgments. As in the case of Rule 60(b), logic dictates that these statutes be construed to apply retroactively to judgments that were final at the time of their enactments. All of these remedial statutes announced generally applicable rules of law as well as establishing procedures for reopening final judgments.15
In contrast, in the examples of colonial legislatures' review of trial courts' judgments on which today's holding rests, the legislatures issued directives in individual cases without purporting either to set forth or to apply any legal standard. Cf. ante, at 219-225; see, e. g., INS v. Chadha, 462 U. S. 919, 961-962 (1983) (Powell, J., concurring in judgment). The principal compendium on which the Court relies, ante, at 219, accurately describes these legislative directives:
"In these records, which are of the first quarter of the 18th century, the provincial legislature will often be found acting in a judicial capacity, sometimes trying causes in equity, sometimes granting equity powers to some court of the common law for a particular temporary purpose, and constantly granting appeals, new trials, and other relief from judgments, on equitable
13 For example, a Virginia statute provides that, when a pro se litigant fails to receive notice of the trial court's entry of an order, even after the time to appeal has expired, the trial judge may within 60 days vacate the order and grant the party leave to appeal. Va. Code Ann. § 8.01-428(C) (Supp. 1994).
14 See Herrera v. Collins, 506 U. S. 390, 410-411, and nn. 8-11 (1993) (citing state statutes).
15 The Court offers no explanation of why the Constitution should be construed to interpose an absolute bar against these statutes' retroactive application. Under the Court's reasoning, for example, an amendment that broadened the coverage of Rule 60(b) could not apply to any inequitable judgments entered prior to the amendment. The Court's rationale for this formalistic restriction remains elusive.
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