364
Opinion of Ginsburg, J.
oner suits.1 That being so, the relevant retroactivity event is the doing of the work for which the incentive was offered.2 All work rendered in reliance upon the fee assurance contained in the former § 1988 will be reimbursed at those rates; all work rendered after the revised fee assurance of the PLRA became effective will be limited to the new rates. The District Court's announcement that it would permit future work to be billed at a higher rate operated in futuro; it sought to regulate future conduct rather than adjudicate past. It was therefore no less subject to revision by statute than is an injunction. Pennsylvania v. Wheeling & Belmont Bridge Co., 18 How. 421, 436 (1856).
For these reasons, I concur in the judgment of the Court and join all but Part II-B of its opinion.
Justice Ginsburg, with whom Justice Stevens joins, concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I agree with the Court's determination that § 803(d) of the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995, (PLRA or Act), 42 U. S. C. § 1997e(d) (1994 ed., Supp. III), does not "limit fees for postjudgment monitoring performed before the [Act's] effective date," ante, at 347, and with much of the reasoning set out in Parts I, II-A-1, and II-B-1 of the Court's opinion. I disagree, however, with the holding that § 803(d) "limits attorney's fees with respect to postjudgment monitoring services performed after . . . the effective date." Ibid.
1 Although the fees awarded under § 1988 are payable to the party rather than to the lawyer, I think it clear that the purpose of the provision was to enable the civil rights plaintiffs to offer a rate of compensation that would attract attorneys.
2 I reject Justice Ginsburg's contention that the retroactivity event should be the attorney's undertaking to represent the civil rights plaintiff. The fees are intended to induce not merely signing on (no time can be billed for that) but actually doing the legal work. Like the Court, I do not think it true that an attorney who has signed on cannot terminate his representation; he assuredly can if the client says that he will no longer pay the hourly fee agreed upon.
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