900
Opinion of Souter, J.
B
In the present case, it is impossible to attribute the exculpatory "public and general" character to FIRREA. Although we have not been told the dollar value of the relief the Government would obtain if insulated from liability under contracts such as these, the attention given to the regulatory contracts prior to passage of FIRREA shows that a substantial effect on governmental contracts is certain. The statute not only had the purpose of eliminating the very accounting gimmicks that acquiring thrifts had been promised, but the specific object of abrogating enough of the acquisition contracts as to make that consequence of the legislation a focal point of the congressional debate.47 Opponents of FIRREA's new capital requirements complained that "[i]n its present form, [FIRREA] would abrogate written agree-purely private contracts persuades us that this test would prove very difficult to apply.
47 We note that whether or not Congress intended to abrogate supervisory merger agreements providing that supervisory goodwill would count toward regulatory capital requirements has been the subject of extensive litigation in the Courts of Appeals, and that every Circuit to consider the issue has concluded that Congress did so intend. See Transohio Sav. Bank v. Director, Office of Thrift Supervision, 967 F. 2d 598, 617 (CADC 1992); Carteret Sav. Bank v. Office of Thrift Supervision, 963 F. 2d 567, 581-582 (CA3 1992); Security Sav. & Loan v. Director, Office of Thrift Supervision, 960 F. 2d 1318, 1322 (CA5 1992); Far West Federal Bank v. Director, Office of Thrift Supervision, 951 F. 2d 1093, 1098 (CA9 1991); Guaranty Financial Services, Inc. v. Ryan, 928 F. 2d 994, 1006 (CA11 1991); Franklin Federal Sav. Bank v. Director, Office of Thrift Supervision, 927 F. 2d 1332, 1341 (CA6), cert. denied, 502 U. S. 937 (1991); cf. Resolution Trust Corporation, supra, at 1502 (observing that "FIRREA's structure leaves little doubt that Congress well knew the crippling effects strengthened capital requirements would have on mergers that relied on supervisory goodwill," but concluding that Congress sought to mitigate the impact by giving OTS authority to exempt thrifts until 1991); Charter Federal Sav. Bank v. Office of Thrift Supervision, 976 F. 2d 203, 210 (CA4 1992) (accepting the conclusions of the other Circuits in dictum), cert. denied, 507 U. S. 1004 (1993).
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