260
Stevens, J., dissenting
grounds." Judicial Action by the Provincial Legislature of Massachusetts, 15 Harv. L. Rev. 208, n. 1 (1902).
The Framers' disapproval of such a system of ad hoc legislative review of individual trial court judgments has no bearing on remedial measures such as Rule 60(b) or the 1991 amendment at issue today. The history on which the Court relies provides no support for its holding.
III
The lack of precedent for the Court's holding is not, of course, a sufficient reason to reject it. Correct application of separation-of-powers principles, however, confirms that the Court has reached the wrong result. As our most recent major pronouncement on the separation of powers noted, "we have never held that the Constitution requires that the three branches of Government 'operate with absolute independence.' " Morrison v. Olson, 487 U. S. 654, 693-694 (1988) (quoting United States v. Nixon, 418 U. S. 683, 707 (1974)). Rather, our jurisprudence reflects "Madison's flexible approach to separation of powers." Mistretta v. United States, 488 U. S. 361, 380 (1989). In accepting Madison's conception rather than any "hermetic division among the Branches," id., at 381, "we have upheld statutory provisions that to some degree commingle the functions of the Branches, but that pose no danger of either aggrandizement or encroachment," id., at 382. Today's holding does not comport with these ideals.
Section 27A shares several important characteristics with the remedial statutes discussed above. It does not decide the merits of any issue in any litigation but merely removes an impediment to judicial decision on the merits. The impediment it removes would have produced inequity because the statute's beneficiaries did not cause the impediment. It requires a party invoking its benefits to file a motion within a specified time and to convince a court that the statute entitles the party to relief. Most important, § 27A(b) specifies
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