Cite as: 525 U. S. 366 (1999)
Opinion of Thomas, J.
proving interconnection agreements, I simply do not think that Congress intended to limit States' authority to mechanically apply whatever methodologies, formulas, and rules that the FCC mandated. Because Congress set forth specific provisions giving primary responsibility in certain areas to the States, and because the subsections setting forth the standards that the state commissions are to apply make no mention of FCC regulation, I believe that we are obliged to presume that Congress intended the specific grant of primary authority to the States to control.4
D
My interpretation, of course, would require the state commissions to interpret and implement the substantive provisions of the 1996 Act in those instances where the 1996 Act gave the state commissions primary authority. Several parties have suggested that it is inappropriate for the States to do so. One of the many petitioners in these cases goes so far as to suggest that under our decision in Printz v. United States, 521 U. S. 898 (1997), the "legitimacy of any such delegation of federal substantive authority [to the States] would be suspect." Brief for Petitioner in No. 97-829, p. 40. To be sure, we held in Printz that the Federal Government may not commandeer state executive agencies. But I do not know of a principle of federal law that prohibits the States from interpreting and applying federal law. Indeed, basic principles of federalism compel us to presume that States are competent to do so. As Justice Field observed over 100 years ago in a decision upholding a federal law delegating to the States the authority to determine compensation in takings cases:
4 My conclusion applies with equal force to other FCC regulations that trump the state commissions' responsibilities, including exemptions, suspensions, and modification, § 251(f); approval of agreements predating the Act, § 252(a); and pre-emption of state access regulations that are inconsistent with FCC dictates, § 251(d)(3).
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