Cite as: 527 U. S. 343 (1999)
Opinion of Ginsburg, J.
State objected, arguing that § 803(d) limits all fees awarded after April 26, 1996, in these litigations to $112.50 per hour. Id., at 34a. In separate but nearly identical opinions, the District Court refused to apply § 803(d)'s fee limitation to work performed before the PLRA's effective date, see id., at 28a, n. 1; id., at 34a, n. 1, but applied the limitation to all work performed thereafter, see id., at 31a, 41a.
Relying on its recent decision in Glover v. Johnson, 138 F. 3d 229 (1998), the Sixth Circuit affirmed the District Court's refusal to apply § 803(d) to work completed pre-enactment. See 143 F. 3d, at 248. The appeals court reversed the District Court's judgment, however, to the extent that it applied § 803(d) to work performed postenactment. See id., at 255-256. Unpersuaded that Congress intended the PLRA attorney's fees provisions to apply retroactively, the panel held that § 803(d) "is inapplicable to cases brought before the statute was enacted whether the underlying work was performed before or after the enactment date of the statute." Ibid.
II
In Landgraf v. USI Film Products, 511 U. S. 244 (1994), we reaffirmed the Court's longstanding presumption against retroactive application of the law. "If [a] statute would operate retroactively," we held, "our traditional presumption teaches that it does not govern absent clear congressional intent favoring such a result." Id., at 280.
Emphasizing that § 803(d) applies to "any action brought by a prisoner who is confined," the State insists that the statute's plain terms reveal Congress' intent to limit fees in pending as well as future cases. See Brief for Petitioners 14-15 (emphases deleted; internal quotation marks omitted). As the Court recognizes, however, § 803(d)'s "any action brought" language refers to the provision's substantive scope, not its temporal reach, see ante, at 353-354; "any" appears in the text only in proximity to provisions identifying the
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