Cite as: 527 U. S. 343 (1999)
Opinion of the Court
ders, providing, for example, for the "immediate termination of any prospective relief if the relief was approved or granted in the absence of a finding by the court that the relief is narrowly drawn, extends no further than necessary to correct the violation of the Federal right, and is the least intrusive means necessary to correct the violation of the Federal right." § 802(a), 18 U. S. C. § 3626(b)(2). Section 803(d), by contrast, does not address the propriety of various forms of relief and does not provide for the immediate termination of ongoing relief orders. Rather, it governs the award of attorney's fees. Thus, there is no reason to conclude that if Congress was concerned that § 802 apply to pending cases, it would "have been just as concerned" that § 803 apply to pending cases.
Finally, we note that respondents' reliance on the legislative history overstates the inferences that can be drawn from an ambiguous act of legislative drafting. Even if respondents are correct about the legislative history, the inference that respondents draw from this history is speculative. It rests on the assumption that the reason the fees provisions were moved was to move them away from the language applying § 802 to pending cases, when they may have been moved for a variety of other reasons. This weak inference provides a thin reed on which to rest the argument that the fees provisions, by negative implication, were intended to apply prospectively.
B
Because we conclude that Congress has not "expressly prescribed" the proper reach of § 803(d)(3), Landgraf, 511 U. S., at 280, we must determine whether application of this section in this case would have retroactive effects inconsistent with the usual rule that legislation is deemed to be prospective. The inquiry into whether a statute operates retroactively demands a commonsense, functional judgment about "whether the new provision attaches new legal
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