Cite as: 515 U. S. 291 (1995)
Stevens, J., dissenting
ployee receiving compensation. In a more recent case, General Dynamics, Inc. v. Director, Office of Workers' Compensation Programs, 673 F. 2d 23 (1st Cir. 1982), the court reiterated this interpretation: '[c]ourts uniformly have held a "change in conditions" means a change in the employee's physical condition, not other conditions.' Id., at 25[, n. 6] (citing Burley Welding Works, Inc. v. Lawson, 141 F. 2d at 966).
"Despite fifty years, and more, of precedent, the majority has overturned this established construction of the term 'change in conditions' and has revised it to have it apply to changes in economic conditions occurring during the term of compensation. Such a departure from settled prior case law is not warranted absent any indication from the Congress that such a change in the statute is what is desired by the lawmakers. Congress, it should not be necessary to add, indicates its desires by adopting legislation.
. . . . . "Fifty years is a long time. And perhaps it can be argued that the Board's, and the courts', and the Congress' erstwhile interpretation of the phrase was inhumane, or unenlightened, or an anachronism, or something else even more disparaging. But it cannot be argued, I submit, that the prior interpretation was not and is not the law." Id., at 1235-1236 (footnotes omitted).
For those reasons, I would affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeals. Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.
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